The Dark Lord
by Brandon Storm
Summary: A young ruler is cast adrift as a stranger in a strange land, nothing to support her but the disgraced legacy of her mother. Now watch, as she rises, and becomes the Queen that she was always meant to be. Now if only she could get people to stop calling her 'The Dark Lord.'
1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note** : So new story, yeeeeaaaah! And it's a Ever After story too. I just love mythology, fables and fairy tales and Ever After High gives me a chance to tackle them head on. Point of interest, I also like worlds that are built from a bunch of smaller worlds put together too. So after finishing one story, I decided to start working on another. So, Read, Review, Favorite and Enjoy.

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Chapter 1: Welcome To Ever After High Evil Queen

 _"I will destroy them! I will reduce all of them to a bloody ashen smear across the ground! I will make every single one of them regret ever hearing the title 'Evil Queen'!"_

* * *

The Carriage shook as it crossed a bump in the road in the forest, jarring the witch sleeping in the back of the carriage awake. Letting out a tired yawn the young witch looked outside and saw the sign 'Welcome to Ever After High.'

"Well Raven, welcome to Hell." The young witch stated to herself.

"Not too late to turn back." The Coachman stated looking over his shoulder back at the young witch named Raven.

"No, it is."

As the young witch stepped out of the carriage passerby's took note of her wardrobe, Silver knee length boots underneath a long ankle length black skirt, a black leather corset worn under a white long sleeve shirt, worn under a black shawl, a black witches hat ending in a curl and finally three amethyst piercings, one in her brow, one hanging from her ear, and one in her tongue. Not that too many took notice of what the witch was wearing, too busy fleeing in terror of her.

( _5%_ )

Raven left the carriage, going back she pulled out a trolley, such choice items visible as a cauldron, a leather suitcase, and a pet carrier with some manner of unpleasant creature inside based on the noises that it was making and the rumbling it was producing. Raven crouched slightly and opened the carrier.

"Don't worry girl, we're be there soon." Not willing the wait, the small black dragon flew out of the carrier and wrapped herself around Raven's neck nuzzling herself into the Witch's cheek. "Couldn't wait eh Nevermore?" Raven replied to the dragon's affections with a smile on her face and a scratch on a scaly cheek. "Alright lets get checked in." Whistling a merry tune, Raven walked towards the student dormitories, even as other students fled in terror of her.

( _10%_ )

Seeing as how it quickly became apparent that nobody would be opening the door for her Raven kicked open the door getting everyone who was already inside's attention.

"Hello ladies and gents. Raven Queen here." Removing her hat Raven bowed to the room. "Now would any of you heroes mind helping me with my..." standing up again, Raven saw that contrary to the buzz of teenager activity that the room was a moment ago the entire room had emptied itself out. "Luggage?"

( _15%_ )

Casting suspicious glances around the room as she went Raven walked right up to the reception desk, and noted that no one was coming out of hiding, even after she rung the bell a few times.

"I don't want any trouble just give me my room key and I'll be on my merry way." At once a hand shot up from below the desk nearly punching Raven in her face in the process, if it wasn't for the fact that it had a key in it she would feel mildly miffed about that.

( _20%_ )

"Thank you kindly!" Raven stated taking the key in the process.

"Please leave!" A weak voice pleaded from beneath the desk.

Whistling a tune as she walked up to the stairs, Raven cast a levitation spell on her luggage and took a seat on it, the trolley serving as a elevator as the two went all the way up to the top floor, traveled all the way across the halls to the far side, and ignored every fear filled glance passed to her along the way.

( _25%_ )

Arriving at the correct room in question Raven opened the door to reveal a young lady in a green suit with white and purple hair and a large top hat.

"Maddie!" Raven shouted in joy her arms opened out wide.

"Black Birdy!" Maddie Hatter shouted back using her pet name for the bird themed witch rushing over and giving the witch a hug. "Queen of Hearts I don't have enough fingers and toes to tell how long it's been!" Releasing Raven from her hug the two girls sat down on the bed, Raven quickly slouching into a position that looked far more uncomfortable than the confident stride that she walked with when she was going through the dormitory earlier. "So first with the caterpillars?" Having been seen through almost effortlessly Raven hung her head low. "I know just the remedy!" Removing her hat Maddie removed a white rolled up table cloth and rolled it out, followed by the sound of a thunk as a table and tea set appeared in the room. "Tea time!"

"Tea time's your answer to everything!" Raven replied giggling a little bit.

"No tea time is just on the side, my answer is If I didn't have my tea time?" Maddie asked as she poked Raven with her elbow.

"Then I'd suck on a lime!" Raven answered visibly cheering up with the start of the Wonderlandian rhyming game. "Okay my turn, if I didn't sleep in a bed?" Raven asked glad for a distraction from her woes.

"Then I'd roll around in warm bread." Maddie stated snorting into a napkin what Raven strongly suspected was the contents of her tea cup. "Okay okay my turn! If I didn't have to be the Evil Queen?"

"'If I didn't have to be the evil queen...?'" Raven quoted her face twisting in confusion. "I... uh... don't know."

"Yeah!" Maddie stated clapping her hands together happily. "Okay let's play again!"

"Your attention please Students." A microphone outside of the doorway interrupted in a gruff and stuffy voice. "Please report to the Charmitorium to begin your orientation." Raven could only sigh, Maddie gave her a comforting pat on the back.

"Come on Maddie." Raven donned her mask of confidence. "Let's get this over with. Nevermore." At this the tiny dragon that was eating the baked goods on the table alongside the Dormouse snoozing in a tea cup stood at attention. "Make yourself at home." Showing the little dragon some affection Raven left the room, and was immediately tackled to the ground by a blonde missile.

"Oh Raven! I'm so glad to see you again!" A blonde haired girl with tanned skin, blue eyes, and a white laced red dress tackled the witch to the ground.

"And I thought I was happy to see Raven again!" Maddie stated barely containing her urge to roll around on the ground laughing to merely just her face breaking out in a wide smile.

"Apple! Can't breath!" Raven wheezed prompting Apple to remember what she was doing and quickly let go in a panic.

"OhmygoshRavenareyouokayIdidn'thurtyoudid..."

"Apple, breath..." Apple sucked in a deep breath of air before letting go in a whistle. "Feel better now?" Apple, who had just starved off a major panic attack, quickly nodded her head, burning off a bit more of the energy that had accumulated prior to barring witness to Raven in person for the first time in ten years. "Good. Now unless you want to keep the head master waiting Miss Goody Two Shoes we need to be getting to orientation."

At that Raven separated from her friends and went to the Charmitorium.

* * *

Immediately you could tell who was the Favorited by the staff. Each chair had a name on it, down in front were large comfortable thrones for the various individuals who were expected to have happy endings. The rest were folding chairs bolted to the ground made of uncomfortable plastic. Maddie was kind enough to give Raven her spare seat cushion before they went to their own seats.

"Good morning to you students." The Headmaster, a stout man dressed in a blue coat and light grayish blue vest with a light blue ascot with a golden decoration with a red stone on it. He has a dark grey mustache, green eyes and dark gray hair with lighter stripes. "For those of you who don't know me. I am your Headmaster Milton Grimm. For those of you who do know me, then you are aware that for generations my family has served as a voice of neutrality at this school, in the position of headmaster." The Headmaster explained gesturing to the portraits hanging above his head in the rafters, showing a long line of brothers who looked similar to him.

"Yoinks this is gonna be a long one." Raven muttered, taking out from her pockets a length of twine as she began weaving together a charm for enchanting later.

"It is the duty of my family to watch over the future heirs to the stories, to ensure that the balance of our world is maintained. Towards this end, several of your teachers have offered to show you around the school where you will be spending the next four years of your lives." Maddie knew that the head master wasn't speaking Riddllish but mysteriously enough she automatically translated the end of that speech to 'now get up so that we can drag you through your daily routine for the next four years blah blah blah.' "For Villains, our head of the department of general Villainy Mr. Badwolf will show you around." The werewolf in a suit sitting next to the head master stood up, and when the student body didn't give him any applause he let out a small but audible growl, and suddenly the student rioted with cheers before he sat back down. "For Royalty, we have our head of Politics and Royalty adviser, Mrs. 'Her Majesty The White Queen.'" The woman in question with white hair, white dress and white skin stood up and curtsied to the crowd, much to the applause of much of the school. "Our head of Maidens in Training, Mrs. Maid Marian." The teacher in a blue princess outfit in question stood up and curtsied, again to much of the applause of the school. "Our head of heroics, King Charming XV." The Blonde haired man in a crown and a large regal looking cape stood up and bowed to the applause of the student body. "Now before you are dismissed for your tours..." Several teachers, including the Witch Baba Yaga, the short little man Rumplestiltskin and what suspiciously looked like a bear in a suit all shot the headmaster scathing glares but little else. "A reminder. Due to the cursing of Wonderland by the previous Evil Queen, you will be joined in your studies, by several transfer students from Wonderland High. During their stay here our foreign guests will be treated with nothing short of the absolute respect that they are deserving of as fellow members of the fairy tail community. Now then, on with your day, I'm sure that there is much you would like to be doing."

( _40%_ )

Raven could only grown, he just had to bring up her mother. She always had a way of aggravating her nerves, even when she wasn't even there. With that the three introduced teachers began funneling the students off into three different categories, which left Raven following behind Mr. Badwolf. Strangely enough, in spite of Raven's best efforts to stay at the back of the group, she inexplicably found herself in the front of the class whenever she found herself a little bit distracted. Adding to that she also had the nagging suspicion that someone was watching her, like boring into the back of her skull. Finally turning around Raven found the answer she was looking for, she was being stared at by the entire 'Villain' population of the school.

( _50%_ )

"WHY ARE YOU PEOPLE STARING AT ME!?" Admittedly Raven had freaked a little bit at the unwanted attention.

( _40%_ )

She wasn't the only one though, she had spat out a huge amount of black smoke like energy, and the student body was backing away from her terrified, understandable considering what she did to the hallway's plants that were little more than dark black rot smeared on the ground at the moment.

"Oh My gosh I didn't mean to..."

"Ms. Queen." Raven spun around and looked at Mr. Badwolf who had put a reassuring paw on her shoulder. "I think you should go back to the Charmitorium now."

( _50%_ )

Raven ran out of the 'Evil Wing' of the school all the way back to the Charmitorium, and climbed into certain house with legs.

"So as I understand it." Baba Yaga stated, sitting across from Raven in a chair while stirring a cup of fresh tea in elderly wrinkled hands. "You've been trying to keep your emotions bottled up all day long, and now you're suffering the consequences."

"It's hard yah know, putting on a brave fast and pretending that you're not miserable all the time." Raven sighed her mug of steamy liquid untouched in her hands.

"Raven, in case this hasn't been beaten into you every single moment of your life since the day that you were born: You. Are. A. Witch! Your emotions have power, if you keep bottling that power up... I won't be able to help you when you break."

Baba Yaga looked seriously into Raven's eyes, glared even, in that silent scolding way. Breaking. It was a terrifying way to go, the mere thought had sent shivers down Raven's spine.

( _55%_ )

"You're taking my magic classes. No argument. You are letting that darkness out of you no matter what, even if you have to do it one tiny little bit at a time." Raven nodded her head solemnly.

"Home Evilnomics, and Magicology right?" Raven asked looking at the class schedule, the two classes the witch taught were listed alongside General Villainy, History of Evil Spells, Witchness Management, Science and Sorcery, Grimnastics, Beast Training and Care, Mythmatics and Chemmythry. "I don't even get to pick my classes? Any of them?"

"Students are required to take the classes that best suit their destinies. If it makes you feel better, Home Evilnomics will help you practice forging magical links to other creatures. If you aren't going to start releasing all of that pent up magical power yourself, perhaps allowing others to do it for you would be the more intelligent course of action. Magicology will teach you generalized magical spells, safe and simple ways to release that magical energy. History of Evil Spells, as someone who's had to play both guide and villainess, I don't mind telling you that dismantling curses is a excellent career choice for you after you're done with the whole fairy tale business. Science and Sorcery is also a excellent means to learn magic and vent your power. Personally I would assume that you would be eager for Beast training and Care, what with a certain pitch black monster under your care." Raven admitted to the only class on that list that she felt reason to look forward to. "Grimnastics and Mythmatics are mandatory for all students. That said you can choose certain elective classes. Might I suggest Princessology or Royal studies?"

Raven looked at the elder witch like she had grown ten extra heads.

"More accurately..." With an annoyed tone the witch downed the contents of her cup. "The Headmaster suggested it. To be fair though. Polishing one's charisma is a important skill to the young future rulers of the lands, even if they are 'Evil.' As is learning how to manage the lands competently."

"Princessology? Really?" Raven asked still obviously dumbfounded. "Not many people realize this. But did it occur to you that if the 'Evil Lands' really were run by a tyrannical dictator then they wouldn't get very far? The Hypocritical princes and princesses of these 'fair lands' just _love_ having a excuse to justify invading foreign territory and over throwing the old regime. A ruling party that does not have the support of the people is doomed to fail. Remember that young Witch Princess, or your head will be on a stump with an ax looming overhead." Baba stated narrowing a glare at the young Witchling.

"Well I'm not interested in ruling that way anyway so you have nothing to worry about." Harrumphing that out annoyed Raven looked down at the list of available courses. "What about Muse-ic?"

"Hmm." Baba tapped her fingers on her arm rest in thought. "If memory serves Muse-ic is at the same time as General Villainy." Raven let out a sigh, depressed if nothing else. "I'll need to discuss the matter with Headmaster Grimm and Professors Piper and Badwolf but I don't see why this should be a problem." Baba stated as she pored herself a fresh cup. "Now if I'm not mistaken the groups should be getting back right about now." Indeed the groups did start flooding the Gym, before diffusing away to go back to their dorm rooms to unpack.


	2. Chapter 2

**Author's Note** : Wow two reviews within a couple days on my first chapter. I should've written a Ever After High fic ages ago. Read, Review, Favorite and Enjoy!

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Chapter 2: Welcome to Ever After High Snow White

A carriage being drawn by large white horses pulled up in front of Ever After High. Out from which came a young lady, one of the future rulers no less, with lightly tanned skin and golden blonde curly hair and blue eyes, her shimmering red dress accented by the small golden crown atop her head. Taking her bag with her The young princess allowed a snow white fox to wrap itself around her neck.

"Are you ready Gala?" The fox made the extra effort to make herself comfortable in the nook of Apple's neck.

At once the two walked down the path, quickly Apple was swarmed with her fellow students, leading the charge among them another blonde in a bright blue dress.

"Apple! Apple White! What's your opinion of arriving at Ever After High!?"

"It's so Wonderlandiful I can't even begin to describe it!" Apple stated half swooning, falling over herself without someone to catch her was simply not dignified and the dress she was wearing was way too new to get dirty on the grass. "I simply cannot wait for the signing of the Story Book of Legends!" Then as a after thought Apple looked down at her luggage as she just remembered that she still had to settle in. "But first I have to move in, it can wait until after that."

As if on cue the ground started shaking as a massive figure emerged from the forest, Apple's entire body barely even matched up against one single toe of the great Giant.

"Apple White, might I have the honor of escorting you to your room?" The voice of the giant boomed scaring the populace into submission.

"Thank you Tiny. That would simply be spectacular." Apple stated giving the much larger individual a bow. Evidently, by escort the giant meant carry, as at once he slammed his hand down palm up behind Apple. At once the fruit named girl sat down on the hand placing the luggage to her side before the giant picked her up and started walking towards the girl's dorm. "Thank you for your aid, Tiny." Apple stated beaming at the much taller student as he reached her dorm balcony in all of three steps.

"Think nothing of it Lady Apple. It will be a long time before my clan will forget the kindness that your family has done for us." Tiny stated as he allowed Apple to slide off of his palm and onto the balcony. "If there is any thing else that I can do for you Milady, just say so."

"Your ear, for a moment, if you can." Apple asked, followed by a loud thump as the giant sat down next to her leaning up against the building, his short brown hair and bright green eyes providing a great deal of comfort for the young princess. "Honestly, I feel nervous. Everything's set out in stone for me and I still don't know what to expect." Apple's own words from a few moments ago echoed in her mind 'I can't even describe it' taking on a new meaning given the right context. "Every time I look at the mirror I hear all the old voices again." Apple stated idly playing with her blonde _Bright as day_ hair or brushing her hand along her skin that tanned so easily, instinctively reaching for the glasses that should be on her face, and a million other put downs that made her feel like she could never measure up as a Snow White.

"You are more than what you look like Apple. Isn't that what your friend Raven always tell you?"

"Oh Raven's just the sweetest thing!" Apple stated grabbing hold of a certain black bird themed cushion/stuffed animal that she had pulled out of one of her suitcase's side pockets. "She's always there to lend a helping hand! Always there to reassure me! She's so smart and wonderful!" The fruit themed princess declared hugging the little stuffed bird to herself and twirling around on the spot.

"Glad I could lend a helping hand." Tiny explained taking a barrel out of his pocket from which he took a potion bottle that looked more like a tiny pill in his hands before setting the barrel down. "In any case I have to get checked in at the boys dorm. See yah!" As Tiny said that, he swallowed the bottle whole, and suddenly his entire body began shrinking down, until he was actually a little bit shorter than some of his classmates.

"Water Hole, Water hole." Apple straightened up a little bit at the disembodied words echoing in her room, turning around slowly she saw no one there. "The Prim, Proper Princess is having a crisis of the faith." Apple let out a undignified squeak when the purple and pink cat girl sat down next to her.

"What the-? Who the heck are you!?" Apple demanded utterly confused at the sudden appearance of the cat person.

"This is wonderland..." The Cat woman stated cryptically before all of the pink in her body, along side her face, disappeared leaving nothing but purple strips and a wide grin roughly in the shape of a person. "And you are my Alice."

"The Cheshire cat?" Apple asked her face twisted in confusion.

"DING, DING, DING! WE HAVE A WINNER!" The Cat girl zoomed around to Apple's other side and wrapped her arm around the girl, planting a celebratory party hat on her head and blowing loudly into a Noise maker. "Well half a winner, my mom's the Cheshire cat but you can just call me Kitty." The fox that was still being worn around Apple's neck like a scarf began growling at the intruding cat. "Don't worry I don't bite." Kitty stated bopping the fox on the nose before retreating back to her bed. "Besides both of you will be gone before I even get the chance to properly prank you." Kitty stated waving the pair off while she devoted her full attention to the magazine she was reading.

"Both of... What are you talking about you crazy cat?" Apple asked a sudden feeling of dread upon her concerning the latest in a long line of legendary pranksters.

"Oh you'll figure out soon enough, but after you move out your fair game you do recall." Kitty stated looking out the window and smiling coyly. "Speaking of which your 'Friend' is just arriving." Apple followed the direction of Kitty's finger out the window and indeed the crowd of students were scattering with Raven's approach.

"Raven's here! I need to go see her right away!" Apple nearly ran out the door only to comically screech to a halt at the door way. "No wait, have to unpack first." Apple stated as she opened up her bag.

"I wouldn't do that if I was you!" Kitty stated prompting Apple to shoot her a look halfway between scorn and curiosity. Finally unpacked Apple rushed out the door after dropping the snow fox off into the closet. "Don't worry about her Carrolloo." Kitty stated looking over to the purple caterpillar sitting on the potted plant on the windowsill eating a leaf. "She'll come around eventually." Kitty stated as she repacked Apple's bag at blurring speed.

* * *

After Apple greeted Raven, and hugged the stuffing out of her, the two of them alongside Maddie were led down to the Charmitorium.

After suffering through the Headmaster's speech Apple was made to follow the White Queen. Admittedly she seemed a little new to the whole teacher thing, but she carried herself with grace and elegance that was worthy of Apple's very own mother.

"You are royalty! Remember that." The Queen stated in a tone one doesn't use to address a hoard of newly inducted students, but rather her own court. "It is your responsibility to not act superior, drunk on power and thinking yourself better than everyone else, it is to be superior! Carrying yourselves with the Grace and Charisma worthy of your family names as you offer guidance and protection." Spinning around the White Queen scanned the crowd with a scrutinizing glare as she saw fit to put a few egotistical souls in their places. "Gentle guiding hand does not translate to Iron Fisted Dictator ship do you under stand me!? And I do emphasize the point of _Offering_ you are servants to your people! Not! The! Other! Way! Around!" Several among the class of new students looked down cast all of a sudden, others backed away in fear, one brave soul however stepped forward.

"If I might be so bold to suggest Miam." A young lady with blonde hair asked raising her hand up. "You're from Wonderland right? Can you tell us about that?" The White Queen cast a scrutinizing glance at the girl who had stepped forward.

"Name?" The White Queen asked in a bored tone.

"Darlene 'Darling' Charming." The new girl gave a polite curtsy before standing at attention again. "At your service."

"I am one of several Monarchs from Wonderland, as Ever After has several monarchs of it's own as you are all well aware." The various members of different royal families each gave nods of confirmation. "I also have the task of negotiating with your people on my people's behalf."

"I get it." Apple stated finger in the air in a eureka type moment like she suddenly had an epiphany. "Because of your position you are the most qualified to teach us how to get along with each so that's why you took the position here."

At that the White Queen looked, no glared at Apple and sauntered over to the young princess she had clearly singled out, resulting in many individuals to back away from the pair nervously.

"The reason why I am here is to look after the people of my home land that your idiotic headmaster have somehow convinced the rest of the insane kin of my homeland to go to school here while _your_ incompetent inbred family beats around the bush figuring out what in the name of the gods be damned hell your precious 'Evil Queen' did to our home am I making myself clear!?" The White Queen declared looming over the future Snow White rather menacingly. Apple huffed a few times before she broke out crying and fell to her knees. "Would somebody be so kind as to get this _little brat_ out of my sight!?" The White Queen asked prompting a brown haired girl in a red hood to go over to Apple and picked her up to carry her out.

"You're suppose to be teaching us Charisma?" A rose themed glasses wearing Brunette asked looking equal parts confused and terrified.

"Not my department." The White Queen shrugged uncaring. "My job is to turn you into negotiators. If that's her reaction to someone being a little mean to her I pity whatever kingdom she is to govern."

* * *

On the subject of that department the next little Red Riding Hood had brought Apple to the Charmitorium where they were talking with Maid Marian.

"Blow." The teacher in question stated holding a piece of tissue paper to Apple's nose prompting a sound from the princess caught between a snort and a honk. "There now what has you so distressed?"

"Well Mrs. White Queen. She was being so mean, and I think she might hate me a little bit." Apple replied still sniffling.

"Being cut off from your home, from your people, it's not a happy feeling. If she does hate someone then it's not you specifically." Marian explained gripping Apples shoulder seriously and looking her in the eyes. "But it is your job to address these dissatisfied feelings and unfortunate circumstances. Being a ruler means that you at times have to go through something difficult."

Apple nodded her head as she straightened her posture, dried her tears and snuffed out her sadness.

"Should we discuss my courses?" Apple asked looking Marian in the eye.

"Indeed we should." Marian stated pulling out a folder with Apples name on it. "Princessology, Muse-ic, Royal studies, Art, Grimnastics, Science and Sorcery, Storytelling 101, Beast Training and Care quite the list you've put together for yourself if I do say so." Maid Marian stated beaming with pride.

"If I might ask, and I know that it seems a little strange, but what do you know of the Evil Classes?" Apple asked looking a little nervous.

"Wha..." Marian on the other hand was so stunned that the folder she was holding slipped out of her hands and fell on the floor. "I'm going to assume that I'm hearing things..." Marian stated as she wiggled her pinky in her ear. "Either that or you have a very good reason, which leads to the question of... why?" Marian asked clearly exacerbated.

"Hmm. Well like you say, it's my job to look after the dissatisfied people. And I want to make sure my friend is okay." Apple stated her smile beaming wide.

"Is that all? Miss White you'll be taking a great many of the same classes as Miss Queen. Put any nonsense of you taking a evil class out of your mind at once!" Marian stated in a scolding tone of voice. "Now is there a matter of Genuine concern you'd like to discuss?" Marian asked eyeing the girl suspiciously.

To which she shook her head no. At that time the divided student body began reassembling in the Charmitorium only to then be dismissed by the head master.

"RAVEN!" Before the would be queen of evil could mutter a curse she was jumped by Apple who resumed her earlier act of hugging the stuffing out of the witch. It was around that time that the future Snow White noted the miserable state of her distressed Queen of Evil.

"Wha... What happened to you?" Apple asked concerned, a tiny hint of the queen she was destined to become bleeding through her features.

"It's a long story Apple."

* * *

 **Review Section** :

Guest: Well, Raven's powers come from negative emotions, which as someone who was on the short end of a incompetent and idiotic educational system I can guarantee you are going to build up, couple with the fact that everyone's so scared of her that she can't let it out naturally, and you get the plot of the original stress counter Mob Psycho 100.

Jascmaster: I like Rapple too, I'm absolutely shocked that the creators of this series never realized all the tension they had built up between Raven and Apple, not to mention feeling dissatisfied as to why they never provided a reason why Raven didn't skip out on Ever After high and never turn back the moment that she didn't go poof from not signing the Book of Legends, not to mention why she puts up with Apple in the first place.


	3. Chapter 3

**Author's Note** :

* * *

Chapter 3: Let's Throw a Party Evil Queen

Raven had been sitting in the headmaster's office, concerning the matter of Raven deciding to take certain... not so evil electoral courses. She was standing up straight, poster and remembering her mother's lessons on how to behave in front of the people of her homeland helped hide her nervousness. She was out numbered by the teaching staff, Baba Yaga, Badwolf, The Pied Piper and the Headmaster Milton Grimm. At least it seemed that way at first, but their eyes weren't on her, it was on the headmaster who was examining the paper work that they had submitted. Having read all the relevant details on the matter, he looked up to the uncompromising glares of his staff. He wasn't getting out of this one easy.

"Mr. Piper. Miss Queen will not be a problem in your class?" Headmaster Grimm asked looking up at the middle teacher.

"She has excellent taste in music and talent." The bearded man in marching band uniform explained stroking his beard in thought. "I cannot for the life of me see a problem here."

"Mr. Badwolf. Do you believe that Raven will suffer in her studies of villainy as a result of this... transfer?" Milton asked looking at the werewolf suspiciously.

"The piper once took control over a entire town and had them march until their feet bled." The Werewolf cocked a hairy brow at the headmaster. "Do you think this is a bad life skill for the young Evil Queen?"

"That is not what I asked. Do you think that she will suffer as a villain without your... guiding hand?" Milton asked looking at Raven suspiciously. "She sows terror just by walking by. Half of her peers are terrified of her. There is literally nothing I can do to improve on what she has accomplished by herself." The Wolf cocked a brow at the still unconvinced headmaster. "If nothing else, it's another opportunity to intimidate her peers."

( _60%_ )

 _"But I don't want to be intimidating!"_ Raven mentally screamed in spite of her posture perfection.

Seemingly satisfied the head master turned his attention to Baba Yaga.

"Do you think this is good for her personally?" The head master asked cocking a brow knowingly.

"She requested it. And it can help to lift the melancholy mood she seems to be under." The elder witch's face was smiling, her eyes were not. "Depression is a serious condition for young witches. Just. Ask. Her. Mother!"

And she went there. And this conversation was officially over.

"Miss Queen. I trust you to understand this doesn't mean you can let up on your Villain studies. I expect weekly meetings with our councilors concerning your... state of mind, and bi-weekly meetings with Mr. Badwolf to ensure that you remain suitable to your role." The Head master, having deemed the matter resolved, went back to work.

"Might I also suggest weekly meetings with Cat-eye for the time being as well?" Baba asked raising one finger in the air.

"If you think it necessary. Now if there's nothing else." It was at that point in time where Raven had gone around the desk and gave the head master a hug before running off.

( _40%_ )

"AND NO HUGGING THE STAFF! It's highly inappropriate!" Adjusting his glasses the headmaster dove back into his paper work.

"Speaking of." The three teachers turned and gave a glare to the headmaster. "How is _she_ doing?" Baba Yaga asked narrowing a glare at the head master.

"Quiet. And staring, always staring." The Head master stated his eyes trailing over to his study, wherein a large sheet of glass depicting a shadowy presence with two bright red dots was located. "The Evil Queen of the Demon Eyes indeed."

"Keeping her here was a bad idea." Badwolf stated his wolfish lips twisting into a snarl at the mere thought of the demon woman.

"She's not here she's trapped in another dimension. What's in that room is little more than a surveillance monitor." Milton pointed out gesturing to the next room over with his pen. "Surely as some of the individuals responsible for capturing her, and as this school is one of the first targets she's likely to go after, do we not have the right to know if and when she breaks free?"

"The White Queen wasn't happy about this. She tried to off us as soon as she found out." Badwolf grumbled, his paw tracing a scar on his neck that was now buried under his fur.

"The White Queen's grudge is not our concern here. Now if there isn't any other issues of genuine concern, there is a lot of paper work here that needs to be done." The Head Master stated gesturing to the work sprawled out on the table. Looking annoyed the three teachers left.

* * *

"Oh you got into Muse-ic!" Apple proceeded to hug the stuffing out of Raven for the third time that day, Fairy God Mother what was that girl eating lately. "Oh I'm so proud of you!"

"Apple!" The witch on the other hand found herself squirming to get out of Apple's grasp. Having deemed an appropriate amount of hugging time to have passed Apple released her prisoner before falling backwards into the grass on the front lawn. "I'm going to have to make up some bruising lotions at this rate, how the hell did you get so strong?"

"I eat all of my vegetables and drink lots of milk!" Apple stated her hands on her hips as she posed proudly.

"Where do they get these things exactly?" Raven asked suspicious curiosity on her features.

"Uh let's see here." Apple absent mindedly tapped her fingers on her chin. "I was in the town one time when I saw the servants buying produce from a foreign merchant."

"Potion bottle and Hoe symbol?" Raven asked prompting Apple to nod happily.

"That would explain it." Raven stated falling backwards and laying down next to Apple's side.

"I can't wait for Legacy day!" Apple stated beaming up at the sky.

"I'm not looking forward to it." Raven stated adjusting her hat into a sleeping mask by placing it over her face.

"What!?" Apple brushed the hat off of Raven, straddled over her legs and grabbed her by her shawl pulling Raven up to eye level. "Raven if you don't sign the book you'll go poof!"

"Does that mean that I have to enjoy the prospect of taking on the name that my mother disgraced?" Raven countered jeweled eye brow cocked in the air.

"Well..." Apple let Raven go and resumed laying down next to her. "I know that you are strong enough, and wonderful enough and smart enough to blow everything your mother did so far away that no one will be able to remember her."

"Once again it feels like you are putting way too much faith in my abilities." Raven sighed noting a black winged figure going through the air above her. "Some days. Bad days, like really bad days I'll admit. Going poof sounds a lot better then signing the book." Sitting up Raven held out an arm and allowed Nevermore to glide down and perch on it.

"Is it really that bad?" Apple asked a horrified look on her face as she shot straight up.

"Some days like I said." Raven stated as she tossed the black dragon back into the air before removing from her coat pocket a braided bundle. "Sometimes some body pops up that remembers what the old days looked like before it all went wrong. Like the headmaster."

"Well he looks old enough to be your grandpa." Apple replied giggling. "I wonder what it would have been like going to school with grandma Jadis." Apple stated watching as Raven went to work on enchanting the twine charm, fondly recalling watching Raven's Grandmother making not too dissimilar charms during visits to the White Family estate.

"I bet she didn't have to put up with this." Raven stated glaring at the empty lawn.

More accurately, what Raven was glaring at was a large chunk of the student body whom was hiding away from Raven behind pillars, bushes, trees, and corners. She should be angry, but she got to be alone with her best friend for a while, so she couldn't complain about the situation.

"Hmph. They just need to learn to appreciate just how wonderful you really are." Apple harrumphed crossing her arms in blatant annoyance with her nose stuck up in the air.

"Like that time you convinced me to create a army of bubble gum pink gargoyles for your birthday party?" Raven asked in dry tone of voice.

"They were Pink! How can pink possibly be scary!" Apple shrieked yanking on her hair in frustration.

"It was dark out Apple, they showed up well, plus there were hundreds of them, on your insistence I might add." Raven stated having reached the point in time where she was satisfied with the Twine charm. "They nearly blotted out the night sky."

"So what does this one do anyway?" Apple asked recalling the disastrous attempt to introduce Raven to her friends and deciding to change the subject.

"Good Health charm, I'm going to be spending some time in the infirmary so I'm trying not to make a pest of myself." Raven stated stashing the charm away as Nevermore touched down on her shoulder.

"Raven. Is there something wrong with you?" Apple asked sizing her oldest friend up and down.

"Unpredictable magical fluctuations Apple. Which is a fancy way of saying I have no idea. That's what check ups are for." Raven stated giving her dragon a scratch before walking off whistling a merry tone.

Happily waving her friend off Apple turned her attention to the crowd, burning a hole into the backs of many heads through glares of disappointment mixed with happy smiles.

"A good health charm eh?" They knew that they were in trouble, that cheery tone almost sounded sarcastic it had so much freezing cold liquid in it's veins. "Jeez I cannot possibly imagine what could be so scary about that?" Idly, Apple picked up a large tripping hazard in the form of a tree branch that had fallen on the side walk and walked over to the compost bin with it, fully aware of the nerdy blonde haired boy that hid behind it. "Would someone like to come out and tell me what they find so scary about Raven?" No one answered, but the smell of urine that was suddenly in the air was satisfactory, so Apple deposited the would be club into the bin and walked away. "It seems that I must take some extreme measures." Apple stated taking out her phone.

* * *

Everyone's heard of Sleep walking before, but has anyone ever heard of sleep skate boarding before? Because that was what one brown haired rose themed student was doing, much to the dismay of the students trying to use the halls right now.

"Briar! It's Apple: we need to talk parties." Suddenly, as if the echoes of snoring and closed eyes were a lie the girl named Briar stepped off her skateboard in front of her locker and answered her phone.

"Hello this is Briar you've gotten my attention." Briar asked putting her safety gear and skateboard into her locker.

"I need to plan a proper get together between our royal friends and Raven." Briar visibly cringed at this.

"Is this going to be like your birthday party where you convinced Raven to blot out the sky with bubblegum gargoyles?" Briar asked recalling waking up in the middle of a field of pink statues and a crying witch.

"Give me a break I was six!"

"So was Raven. She couldn't look at bubble gum again until she was eight." Briar pointed out getting her class schedule so that she could then go pick up her books.

"You're not helping here Briar! I want to hear your best idea for a little mass female bonding and I want to hear it now!"

"Sleep over." Briar stated letting out a tired yawn as her narcolepsy prepared to take hold of her again. "Sleep over? That's a brilliant idea!"

"Apple listen to me right now!" Briar snapped summoning the will power to stay awake a couple of minuets longer. "Under no circumstances is Raven to use magic at whatever manner of hair brained stunt you are about to pull! No one needs... a... remind..." A sound not unlike logs being sawed informed Apple that she would be alone for the rest.

* * *

Inside of the AV room for the school a familiar blonde haired young lady was getting ready for the first Mirror cast of the school year.

"Blondie Lockes." A brown haired young man in glasses walked up to the Blonde with a phone. "It's Apple."

"Thank you Dexter." Picking up the phone Blondie held it to her ear. "Hello there Apple." Blondie stated checking her nails while she idly chatted on the phone.

"Breaking news: Sleep over with Apple White, all Royal Ladies invited!"

"Oh I like the sound of that!" Blondie stated straightening up and grinning toothily.

"I hope Raven feels the same way."

An audible screech echoed in Blondie's mind at that statement.

"As in Bubble Gum Gargoyle Raven who chased me up a tree?" Blondie asked tapping her fingers on the table.

"Oh why is everyone still on about that!?"

"Apple. They had to use a ladder to get me down, and I needed to get my hair cut off because it was caught up in a tree branch. And it hurt that one time I slipped, a lot." Blondie stated in a unamuse tone of voice.

"And the party will be a strict no magic zone for the night."

"Pinky swear?" Blondie asked cocking a brow at her phone.

"Pinky swear."

"For Raven's sake, you shouldn't so much invite her, as tell her the party is happening and let her crash it." Blondie stated penciling a few notes down.

"Isn't Crashing parties more Faybelle's thing?"

"Faybelle has been a first class terror since she was six years old. Copying her is a excellent idea for any aspiring villainess." Blondie stated smirking knowingly.

"Shouldn't it be Faybelle trying to copy Raven? I mean everyone's way more scared of her then Faybelle."

"You can't copy talent Apple." Blondie stated in a warning tone. "Raven sows terror in the school just by walking by."

"That's part of the problem you do realize right?"

"Yes but you don't crash a party because you're trying to be mean, you do it cause you're trying to have fun." Blondie stated with full confidence. "It's not evil it's mischievous, believe me it'll help tone her way down."

"Alright if you say so."

* * *

 **Review Section** :

Charlie: Glad you think so. To me, Apple's defining character trait is that she is gay, only destiny and her Family obligations has shoved her so far into the closet that she can't even tell what she's suppose to look like. And getting her out of the closet is gonna be like pulling teeth.

Guest: Glad you think so, and I intend to.


	4. Chapter 4

**Author's Note** : Ah yes, Reviews, the life blood by which gets a writer through the week. How I love you, Read, Review, Favorite and Enjoy!

* * *

Chapter 4: You Are Uninvited Evil Queen

Raven was getting a headache, she was stripped naked, strapped down to a soul forge, had a pint of her blood extracted from her veins, and all of the magic flowing around the air made her head feel like it was about to pop, and the rest of her too if the way the scars and stretch marks that littered her body were glowing were any indication. Finally the magical contraption wound down and released Raven from it's hold.

"You're free to go now." Doctor Cat-eye, whom it should be noted really did have cat eyes, stated as he reviewed the information on the screen.

"Thank goodness."

First Raven put her piercings back in, the magic dampening charms helping with her headache immensely. Then she got dressed, feeling a lot better in the long sleeves of her blouse and knee length boots that managed to hide her scars so well.

"We'll let you know when we pick up on any abnormalities." The Feline eyed doctor stated as Raven passed him by.

Outside Cat Eye's office Raven saw two old associates of her's, one a fairy with shriveled wings, another a scarred tomboyish girl with wolf ears.

"Faybelle, Ramona." Raven stated sitting down in a chair. "So what are you in for?"

"Shriveled wing syndrome." Faybelle stated fluttering her wings that didn't look all that healthy.

"Haha!" Letting out a snort Ramona made a big toothy grin that was one tooth short. "You should see what the other guy looks like."

Raven heard a moan of pain coming from the other operating room beside from Doctor Swine Heart's office at the sound of Ramona's voice.

Over all the school had three doctors, The Three Army Doctors more accurately, Cat-Eye, Swine-Heart, and Thief-Hand, though the latter usually wasn't trusted to be alone.

"The three trouble makers back together again." Raven rolled her eyes, recalling about how their parents were all friends and hence when ever the two of them came over to the Evil Queen's castle to plot world domination or something the three of them would be left alone. Ramona's favorite hobby was going full not so big bad wolf, cause she was kid, and terrorize the local village people, Faybelle tagged along so that she could pretend to be a evil master mind riding on the back of her monster wolf, and Raven would tag along trying to keep the two of them away from any pitch forks and torches. "Yippee. It looks like I have to keep the two of you out of trouble again." Raven stated letting out a tired tone.

"Speaking of which, purely professional curiosity." Faybelle stated bringing out her mirror pad and brought up footage of the student body cowering at the sight of Raven. "How do you inspire such fear in these mortal creatures?"

"Ugh!" Raven face palmed as she slumped into the chair. "It's not like I try to be scary!"

( _65%_ )

"Easy there Faybelle, she looks just about ready to pop." Ramona warned recalling what happened the last time that Raven 'popped' she can still taste the bubblegum.

"It's not like she's the only one who can't get any respect around here." Faybelle groaned looking at the tablet. "My family's the laughing stock of the entire school, a villain, getting her story scooped up right from underneath her nose!" Faybelle felt her phone buzzing in her pocket before pulling it out and, rather annoyed, showed the text to her two associates.

"'You are hereby uninvited to the Welcome to School Slumber Party. Briar.'" Ramona read squinting at the phone. "You were invited?"

"Of course not they're letting me know that there's a party so that I can crash it." Faybelle said dismissively waving her hand.

"See? That's exactly the problem here!" Raven shouted gripping the sides of her head. "Why tell us there's a party only to tell us not to come only we're suppose to anyway!"

( _70%_ )

"Raven dear. Do you need to go somewhere to cool off?" Faybelle stated, noting the stream of dark colored magic that was coming off of Raven's body.

"I'm... just going to go to the Tea shop. Before I hurt someone." Raven got up and left Faybelle and Ramona alone.

* * *

"So you just left them to their own devices?" Maddie asked, the name tag on her clothes indicated her position as waitress and barista at the Wonderland Haberdashery and Tea Shop, and thankfully she was taking the opportunity practice Ever After standard instead of speaking Riddlish. "Not to sound scolding or anything Birdie, but don't you think that is maybe a bad idea?"

"Says the one who joined in on those two's chaotic rampages right alongside the Cheshire cat?" Raven asked looking at Maddie knowingly.

"Oh please that was fun and you know it." Maddie stated as she pored Raven another cup of tea.

"My mom getting angry at me wasn't fun." As Raven spoke the sentence Maddie crushed the cup that she was holding, and yet mysteriously the liquid inside maintained a perfectly intact cup shape, she'd never understand how riddlish worked. "Too soon?"

"Not at all Birdie, it's been ages, if I haven't gotten over it by now then I've got serious problems." Maddie stated waving Raven's concerns away while she finished off the invisible glass of tea.

"Maddie. Your entire home was ripped away from you, you've lost your mother and you've been living with the daughter of the monster responsible for it all..." Raven added looking rather downcast. "If you didn't have serious problems, then you'd have a serious problem."

( _80%_ )

"Well then. At least it's only one." Maddie stated looking coy. "Onto more important matters." Maddie whipped out her Mirror Phone and showed it to Raven, it's content depicting a invitation similar to Faybelle's, of course hers said that she was _invited_ to the sleep over. "You gonna crash the party?"

"Ugh why does this keep coming up!" Raven shouted to the heavens, many of the Haberdashery's clients firstly realizing who Raven was, followed by what the black smoke coming out of her sleeves which was followed by the very poignant realization that they should leave their checks and food at the table and leave.

( _90%_ )

"It's probably better that you didn't, at least save the fun until after you've blown your cap off." Maddie stated, prompting Raven to hide her hands inside her sleeves.

"It's, not that easy! It's not like I can just..." Raven paused looking for the right words.

"Blow your top on command?" Maddie suggested looking at Raven knowing. "Raven dear, I over heard from the writer your conversation with the old witch, and while he was being deliberately vague I know that this scares you." Maddie stated putting her hand on Raven's shoulder. "Tonight, no right now, go off into the forest, and do whatever it is you have to do to stay alive. Now!"

"Write..." While Raven was still trying to wrap her head around Maddie's fourth wall musings the Hatter picked her up by the shoulder of her shirt and the belt in her skirt and threw her out of the Haberdashery and into a tree.

"You'll thank me later Birdie!" Maddie shouted before slamming the door shut.

Raven blew the leaves out of her mouth as she shot Maddie a glare.

( _95%_ )

" _Calm, calm Raven. Don't destroy the Haberdashery, Maddie's just looking out for you._ "

Raven let out a low whistle before she took off to the forest, she was also right, she needed to blow off steam in a bad way. But when Raven took off through the forest, she did not realize that she was being followed.

"Well this looks good enough." Raven assessed her surroundings, far off from Bookend Village, but sill on the trail that she could find her way back easily enough. "You can come out now!" At first the men following Raven were confused, surely she wasn't talking about them. "I don't have time for this." Raven sighed and shook her head before she decided to take things just a touch more seriously. "NEVERMORE!"

At once the black dragon swooped out of the sky and shot a bolt of bluish flame at the group of hiding men, knocking the Dwarven people dressed in crude camoflage out of the trees and causing their tools of the assassin's trade to spill out of their bags.

"How'd you know demon woman!" The Dwarf who fell the farthest shouted glaring daggers at Raven.

"Stealth, even stealth by someone who has been trained for it, is not a dwarf's strong suit. Every time you jumped from a branch and landed on another they both shook. Speaking of." Raven magically picked up one of the blades that fell out of the bags the dwarfs dropped and examined it. "Daggers." Running the blade under her nose Raven could smell the distinctive sent of Basilisk venom, more commonly known as 'Mage Killer.' "Poison." Looking at the bag Raven made out the presence of several bottles of Spider Venom, a notoriously potent acid available on the open market. "Acid, Hmm looking to make someone disappear are we?" Raven asked some of the confidence that she had when she got to the school on her features.

"We have not forgotten the wrongs done to our people by your family demon woman!" The dwarf snapped swiping the blade away from Raven. "HAVE AT THEE!"

Raven, whom it should be noted wasn't even bothering to try and stop the flow of her magic anymore, flicked her finger in the general direction of the dwarfs knocking them back a bit.

"Before we continue, can I just take a moment to say thank you so much!" Raven stated the smile on her face in direct contrast to the terrifying atmosphere that she was giving off, making her all the scarier. Confidence, a excellent shield as her mother use to call it. "You see I've just been having a perfectly miserable day lately and having people line up like this to help me blow off steam is really just excellent." Raven explained clapping her hands happily, producing waves of smoke colored magic.

Joy, or fake joy in this case, was also really effective, especially in highly inappropriate situations. It seemed to be working as the looks on the dwarfs faces were people who were seriously reconsidering their life choices. One brave soul attempted a preemptive strike by throwing a bomb at the witch and dragon pair. Immediately Raven put up a shield protecting herself. But she didn't count on it being a ice bomb releasing a flash freeze type blast. Raven for the most part withstood the storm, being a large warm blooded mammal served her purposes quite well. Nevermore at the moment was small, and cold blooded, she was not built for taking ice bombs. As Raven collapsed to the ground she saw her companion lying still on the ground. Not moving. Down right lifeless in fact.

( _100%_ )

* * *

Tiny, ever the helpful Big Friendly Giant, was assisting Briar in carrying stuff for her over to the girl's dorm, where in she intended to set up everything needed for impromptu sleeping quarters being put together in the lounge.

"Okay Let's check our bases!" Apple stated bouncing on the heels of her feet as she clapped her hands together excitedly. "Briar?"

"We have enough snacks and juice to keep us up all night thanks to Ginger." Briar stated making note of another in a line of go to people when she needed something specific.

"Blondie?" Apple asked pointing both of her fingers at her blonde haired friend in the blue dress.

"By now the whole school and most of the town knows about the party." Blondie stated beaming with pride. "We should have a packed house."

"Great! Tiny!" Apple shouted, her hands cupped around her mouth and aimed at the giant.

"No boys allowed, I know." The Giant replied, having finished his work he went back to the boys dormitory to intercept the inevitable pantie raid no doubt on it's way.

"And Finally Faybelle." Apple stated stepping away from the door and looking up at the roof at the Fairy with the crippled wings.

"Yah yah, I got the uninvitation. The 'bad girls' know we're suppose to crash the party. Just don't expect everyone to show up." Faybelle explained idly flipping through a magazine.

"Fantastic! This 'Raven's not so scary after all' party is going to go off without a hitch!" Apple stated literally jumping with joy.

"Good luck with that princess, cause Raven's not coming." Faybelle explained smirking in satisfaction at the distressed look on Apples face.

"What...? But... This whole thing is for Raven! She's the Guest of honor!" Apple all but shrieked looking all the more distressed.

"You didn't invite her." Faybelle stated even more amused now.

"That's not the point!" Apple frantically replied as she began pacing back and forth face towards the ground. "This entire thing was for her! How can she not show up!?"

"Alright." Faybelle slammed her magazine shut. "Time to get down to business!" The fairy jumped down and loomed over the princess. "I know that this seems to contradict what you have been so thoroughly brainwashed to believe _princess_." The Fairy spat the last word like it tasted like spoiled milk. "But Raven has a life! And occasionally having a life means that she is going be unavailable for whatever manner of asinine plan that you come up with. Perhaps if you were actually paying some attention to her, then you would understand that something has been bothering her today and thus have some personal business to sort out!"

"Is Raven in trouble?" Apple asked looking like she could break out in tears at any moment.

"Oh here comes little baby Apple with the water works!" Faybelle rubbed her hands over her eyes like she was crying.

"Why are you being so mean about this!" Apple shouted proper tears from her face.

"I'm being mean!? Oh that's rich coming from you! The school's bleeding terrified of Raven! She can't walk the thrice damned halls without someone getting scared stiff or screaming witch like she's the ghost of Morganna the Black crawling out of the grave to eat their souls! And what do you do? You gather half of them on your door step and expect her to show up so that they can all scream bloody murder at her! Well done!" Faybelle offered sarcastic congratulations as she gave a slow clap of her hands. "I know I'm mean, but you're down right nasty! Between you and 'The Dark Lord of Terror' you call a friend I'm afraid that I really just can't compete!"

By now Apple was full blown sobbing into her hands, realizing just how horribly she was acting towards Raven. Briar and Blondie shot the fairy dirty looks as they patted her on the back and led her back inside the dorm.

"And would you stop crying all the time! You're embarrassing yourself!"

Faybelle climbed, and mentally cursed her crippled wings, a drainage pipe and retrieved her Phone, already setting to work broadcasting the emotional break down of Apple White at her hands to the school. That should get her some brownie points in her villainy class. She felt the explosion before she heard it, hit by the shock wave of pressure, her gleaming black dress was now covered in dirt and the screen on her phone was cracked alongside it should be noted most of the windows in the girl's dorm. Faybelle coughed out the brown dirt as she tried to figure out what was going on. Apple and the girls came out and watched the huge mass of dark magic moving around in the sky.

"Maybe Raven's not as okay as we thought she was." Faybelle noted watching the mass of darkness move towards them.

"You mean to say that's Raven over there!?" Apple shouted pointing to the sky at the, now that she thought about it, roughly bird like mass of magical power.

"Actually I think that's Raven coming over here." Faybelle stated, before she pushed the girls inside the dorm.

What landed in front of the door certainly looked like a giant mass of darkness. But it wasn't Raven. As made evident by the fact that whatever it was reached inside the dorm and dropped her off. Briar went for a broken window to deposited her stomach contents. Blondie did her best impression of a board as she fell backwards in a fainting spell. Apple was paralyzed, her mouth hanging open at the ruined stated of Raven's body, from her frost bitten skin to the leg that wasn't there anymore. Her face looked so fragile right now that it could break if she so much as reach out and touched it.

"Ow!" Apple snapped hand instinctively going to the fresh welt on the back of her head.

"I said get your lazy princess ass in Gear and get a tub of hot water or so help me...!"

"What about that?" Apple asked pointing to the tub of water that had been reserved for apple bobbing.

"Good enough. I'll heat the water you start tearing apart those curtains!" Faybelle barked pointing to the window Briar was currently occupying.

At once Apple went over and attacked the Curtains, Briar was confused as to what she was doing but helped anyway. Faybelle dragged the tub over and heated it so that it was warm, not hot. As soon as Apple and Briar came over with the curtains Faybelle tied one of the strips around Raven's leg to prevent anymore bleeding once she thawed out. Raven's barely alive body was put into the warm water and several blankets intended for the sleep over were draped over her body. Faybelle checked Raven's pulse, maintaining the weak heart beat using electrical magic. She was alive, and God Mother be damned she was going to keep her alive.

* * *

 **Review Section** :

Chica-Flick: It's a fair question. When you're talking about a lord you know you're referring to a ruler, granted not one as highly ranked as a duke or a queen but still, lady on the other hand is generally used as a polite way of referring to a woman, which while accurate, also doesn't hold the same meaning as it use to. Besides the use of the word lord implies a stronger connection to Raven's Father than her mother, which given her active efforts to distance herself from makes sense.

Guest: To me, Apple going on and on about what Raven is suppose to be like for the sake of their story subtracts from another part of her character, in that she does actually care about her and is trying to keep her from going poof. She's also rather hypocritical insisting that Raven conform to a imagined ideal of a Evil Queen while letting Daring go around being the womanizing Dick that he is. Granted that was largely because she cares more about Raven then Daring, but not the point here. Underneath her insane babblings about destiny and such Apple is a reasonably intelligent girl who uses logic in her day to day life and is being raised to be the next ruler of one of the most influential kingdoms in the world. Hence, rather than trying to shove Raven through a Evil Queen Cookie Cutter she's going to take a genuine look at the reasons why Raven is not going to become the Evil Queen and work to resolve them.


	5. Chapter 5

**Author's Note** : Another week, another Chapter. And might I just say that I'm so looking forward to doing this fic, based purely on the response I've gotten so far, hint hint.

* * *

Chapter 5: Are You Okay Evil Queen?

The Sleep over was officially canceled. The sight of a hundred foot long pitch black scaly monster snarling outside of the girl's dormitory would have that effect. Adding to the chaos was that the beast had it out for the little dwarfs that were trying so desperately hard to get away from her. But a channel carved with fiery breath here, a slam of the spiked tail there, and they were effectively boxed in, if by nothing else than shear terror of the monster that could easily eat all of them whole. Others did not appreciate the efforts the beast was taking, a Giant and several members of the Hero class lining up in front of her.

"Holy flipping balls of hell!" A Blonde leading the charge cursed.

"Ah 'Daring' you're the dragon expert here, any thing you wanna add?" A Red haired young man dressed as Robin Hood asked looking at the great black beast.

"Sparrow, I've never seen a dragon like that before. But..." The dragon snarled at the incoming group of heroes, her tail flickering around dangerously as she worked to keep the dwarfs from escaping anywhere. "If we can keep that thing busy from a distance, then one of us can swoop in and get those guys outta there." Daring stated staring down the beast with his sword.

"Any recommendations?" A brown haired young man asked lining up his bow with the black beast.

"Aim for the eyes?" Daring attempted to add helpfully, only to receive glares from the two boys. "I don't know this is my first monster attack! You're the huntsman Hunter! Shoot at something!"

"Thanks for the help Captain obvious!" The Young man named Hunter snapped before he and Sparrow started to pelt the dragon with arrows. The dragon for the most part barely even noticed, moving it's wing over it's face to block the incoming projectiles. "Ah crud!"

The dragon breathed a ring of fire around the Dwarfs, walking over the young would be heroes to address the source of the arrows pelting her. Daring was grateful that he picked up the frost enchanted sword, using it to extinguish the flames.

"Come on! It's moving away from the girls dorm! You'll be safe there!" Daring stated offering a hand to the dwarfs, a hand that was quickly smacked away.

"Unhand me fool! I shant have anything to do with that demon woman!"

While Daring was left to ponder this statement the rear end of the dragon swung over his head, the beast was attempting to use a tail attack on his two associates, in the process Daring saw something that might be a game changer, but it would have to wait, as the beast was now staring him down.

"Uh oh." A dark taloned hand slammed down in front of Daring, but missed him completely, on the other hand though that dragon seemed to have it out for the dwarfs who would now need the full attention of the school's healers. "Well that's some interesting details. Now where is...?" Then in a moment of serendipity Daring saw just who he was looking for arriving with the news crew. "DEXTER!" Indeed even though Blondie was no where to be found her ever loyal camera man, otherwise known as Daring's little brother Dexter, was recording the battle at a safe distance through a Mirror Pad.

"Daring?" Dexter asked looking confused as his elder brother ran over to him. "What's going on?"

"You're saving the day that's what!" Daring exclaimed grabbing his brother by his shoulders.

"I am?" Before explaining himself Daring grabbed Dexter by his hand and ran over towards the dragon, taking Dexter's glasses Daring grabbed hold of a decent sized rock and chucking it at the dragon's head. "Daring! Don't piss off the angry dragon!"

"Angry _Lady_ Dragon!" Daring pointed out hoisting Dexter up by his arms and holding him in front of him.

"ARE YOU KIDDING!? DO YOU HONESTLY EXPECT SOMETHING LIKE THAT TO WORK HERE!?" Dexter barked back looking down at his idiotic brother.

Well one part of Daring's plan was working, they definitely had the beast's attention, as made evident by the stomping sounds that the monster made when she circled around to glare down at the brothers and let out a noticeable growl as she looked them in the eyes. Light briefly flashed in Dexter's eyes. Suddenly the dragon started to stumble about before collapsing to the ground with a loud thump, knocked, out, cold.

"What in the name of The Story Book of Legends is going on out here!" A group of the school's teaching staff, led by Headmaster Grimm and his Secretary Mrs. Trollsworth hoisting a torch in the air, approached the area and bore witness to the sight of the unconscious dragon.

"Haha! Dex here just took down a dragon!" Daring exclaimed slapping Dexter on the back, leading to the scared stiff younger brother to fall over unconscious. "With a little help from his big bro of course." Daring added smiling his best cheesy movie star grin as if a after thought, which further illuminated the darkness with it's blinding light.

"But where did it come from?" The head master asked examining the beast and seeing something familiar that he couldn't quite place. There hasn't been a dragon on the grounds since he went to school. It was then that the beast started to shrink down. The shadows that covered it's form receded and although it's flesh was no less black bits of red blood showed through showing that someone that night had managed to do some damage to the beast. "Smok?" Speaking of the beast in question, the dragon the Head Master use to know, the beast was indeed the spitting image of the child of the legendary dragon that Jadis made into her familiar. But that was impossible, that beast should be ten times this one's size and on the far side of the country. Even more concerning was the presence of the broken bodies of several dwarfs that was under the black beast's paw. "Someone get the doctors!"

"Yah someone should get the doctors!" The assembled group of teachers and students looked over as a werewolf, the half transformed Ramona, came running at them. "To treat Raven for the injuries that these pricks did to her!"

"Raven was attacked?" This time it was Baba Yaga who piped up narrowing a glare at Ramona.

"Last time I saw her she was taking a warm bath, Sans one MIA leg, being looked after by Faybelle and Apple of all people." Ramona stated indicating the Girl's dorm.

"Cat-Eye Baba..."

"Get over to the girl's dorm got it." Baba stated interrupting the headmaster by unrolling her flying carpet and letting the feline eyed doctor climb aboard before they flew off.

"Badwolf, Thief-Hand..."

"Secure the prisoners while the Thief puts those morons back together. Got it." Badwolf stated as his associate along with the only female doctor went for the prisoners.

"Mr. Bear, Swine-Heart..."

"Dragon. Got it." The humanoid bear in a tie walked over to the dragon with the last of the three doctors.

* * *

It was a hectic morning. After Raven had been stabilized Baba used her carpet to fly Raven into the hospital wing. Nevermore soon proved her resilience when she healed from the injuries done to her after having a little bite to eat and camped out in the same room that Raven was being kept in. The dwarfs on the other hand had their bones welded together and their injuries cauterized by Baba's fire magic, and were now in the custody of King Charming and several of his students that were looking to get some extra credit. Which now raised some very important questions.

"From the beginning: What happened!?" The Headmaster all but growled, the way he rubbed his temples indicated the start of a very deep migraine and a long morning.

"Got me, one minuet I was updating my My-Book page the next thing I knew a explosion was ringing in my ears and Nevermore was hauling tail getting Raven to the girls dorm." Faybelle stated shrugging her shoulders.

"Did you know that the dragon was Raven's?" The head master asked looking crossed with Faybelle.

"If it wasn't then it meant that another pitch black dragon was in a hurry to get Raven back to the campus alive." Faybelle stated shrugging. "Changing sizes is new though. Maybe it was Raven's explosion."

"Explosion?" The Headmaster asked sounding slightly terrified.

"Occasionally..." Now it was Baba Yaga who was speaking, though she seemed more focused on cleaning her glasses. "A witch feels the need to keep their emotions and magical power bottled up inside of themselves instead of letting it out. Out of fear for example." The elder witch explained as she put her glasses back on her face. "The more this power builds the harder it is to keep these feelings inside, when they reach the point that they can no longer cope anymore, all of their magical power is released in a sudden concentrated burst of energy. Often with spectacular results."

"Such as a infantile dragon growing into a adult before then reverting into a juvenile." The Headmaster noted keeping his hand on his chin.

"No no the dragon was already a Juvenile." Now it was Ramona who piped getting suspicious looks from the head master. "Raven's had that dragon longer than we've known her, and we've known her for a long time. Maybe the little butt pain could always change her size?" The werewolf explained picking something out from her teeth.

"If that is true, it is very disconcerting." The Headmaster noted crossing his fingers together. "There is policy in place about bringing dangerous creatures into the school."

"Excuse me Headmaster!" Faybelle snapped, slamming her hands down on the table. "But was it not the school, your school I might add, who promised a safe learning environment where students would not have to worry about dwarf assassins raiding the school looking to lynch witches!? If you find yourself unable to deliver on such promises then what are we as students to do but take matters into our own hands!?"

"Miss Thorn! I am not arguing the short comings of the school here!" The Headmaster snapped in turn, before inhaling sharply and adjusting his tie. "Once Miss Queen is stabilized we will determine if and what punishment she will receive. Until then we will do everything in our power to determine what has happened, and to whom is responsible!" The Headmaster watched as Faybelle slinked back into her chair looking dissatisfied, but her outburst still reminded him of something. "Mrs. Trollsworth." Milton stated pressing down on a button on his phone on his desk. "Where is that report on Miss Queen's medical condition?"

"The Doctor's are still trying to figure that out." The raspy voice of the secretary replied from the phone.

"Excuse me? How long does it take to diagnose a missing leg!?" Milton exclaimed glaring at his secretary through the phone.

"It's not the leg their trying to figure out. It's everything else."

* * *

Inside of the school's medical wing the Three Army Doctors were looking down at their screen, then back up at Raven who was a way's away on the soul forge, then back at the screen, all the while maintaining identical shocked and confused expressions.

"Excuse me." Hearing a familiar voice Thief-Hand snapped out of her daze and opened the door and saw Apple standing on the other side with a bag of Apples.

"Is Raven awake yet. I brought her something." Apple explained hoisting up the bag. "An apple a day and all that."

"I'm afraid that a whole orchard of apples won't keep us away dear." Thief-Hand stated leading Apple inside and sitting her down at a Chair.

Apple's eyes glanced around the room, Raven was laying down in a medical gown on a examination bed, Nevermore was protectively wrapped around it asleep. At least that's what she thought when she approached the bed, but hearing Nevermore growl made her go back to sitting in the chair.

"Is there something wrong with Raven?" Apple paid her friend a second glance. "Aside from the obvious I mean?"

"Have you known her a long time?" Doctor Cat-Eye asked not taking his face away from the screen.

"Ah... Yes?" Apple replied a little unsure, they met years ago, were friends for a while, but aside from that...

"Has she recently been bitten by any extremely large poisonous spiders?" To the question, Apple found herself stunned.

"Not that I know of... She didn't mention any thing." Apple managed to strangle out.

"Has she ever been to the great fairy forest, or come in contact with any type of parasitic fungus?"

"She's... friends with Faybelle..."

"Has she ever reported having any major heart problems?"

"N... No..."

"This girl is useless." Cat-Eye stated prompting his siblings to agree. "We should talk to someone else. Get her father on the line, and see if we can talk to the Faybelle girl." At once two of the doctors went to get Faybelle and call Raven's family.

Apple tried to sneak up on Swine-Heart who was still at the work station but he moved to block her point of view.

"OUUGH!" Admittedly Apple was a little startled to hear Raven rousing awake. She was more happy then anything else but Raven should still be resting. "Raven! Go back to sleep!" Apple rushed over completely ignoring the grumpy dragon that was beneath her. "You should be resting!"

"Ugh! My piercings." Raven grumbled as she felt around her face.

"Miss Queen I'm afraid that..." It was then that the pig themed doctor noticed the blood dripping from Raven's nose. "Dampening charms of course!" At once the doctor went to work putting Raven's piercings back in while Apple dabbed the blood coming out of Raven's nose with a tissue.

"Will these help?" Apple for one questioned how piercings kept blood from leaking out Raven's nose.

"They won't hurt, if you're awake we'd like to ask you some questions." Swine-Heart stated backing away from Raven.

"Sure, sure." Raven mumbled before she slipped off the table and fell on the floor. "Ouch! Why can't I feel my leg?"

* * *

Raven was seated in a wheel chair facing the good doctor, Nevermore along with Apple were made to wait out in the waiting room.

"Arachas Venom, Matanago mushroom spores, Tattoo's and piercings... in my heart, cracks in my Origin...?" Raven asked confused over this miss-mashed stream of unrelated information about her body.

"Along with a host of other conditions but yes. According to our research, a compromised Origin is not uncommon for someone who uses magic like you do." As if emphasizing a entirely different point, Swine heart took out a balloon and inflated it to a large size. "As anyone who has ever gotten a balloon from a carnival will tell you, you cannot keep what you put inside for ever." The Balloon began making a pathetic squealing noise as air was let out of it. "By filling it up with air, the balloon is stretched, micro tears form, and it's contents begin to leak out." Once the Balloon was empty again the Doctor took another deep breath and blew into the balloon once more. "Once you've done this a second time, the tears are stretched even bigger and even more air will leak out." The doctor let go of the balloon, causing it to circle the room a couple of times before it was out of air. "Now imagine if you would, that happening over, and over, and over again. Because that's what your doing. The more you resist this power, the harder, and harder it's going to become to control, until it finally kills you."

"Alright, is there any way we can fix this?" Raven asked looking curious.

"Surgery is both one of my and mine siblings specialties lucky for, presuming of course, that you cease this self destructive behavior that you've engaged in." The Doctor stated glaring down at Raven.

"I'll stop trying to suppress my magic when people stop trying to kill me every time I use it!"

* * *

 **Review Section** :

TheGreatStorycollector: Well not so lesser known now, the Wolf Among Us featured Swine Heart briefly, which in turn has had a head long collision with people googling him to figure out who he is.

Chicka-flick: There is such a thing as a method to my madness.

Charlie: Well she has been known to do that from time to time in the show, and it is one of the funnier parts of her character, and it's just too good to pass up.

Guest: It only gets thicker from here.


	6. Chapter 6

**Author's Note** : Another week down, you keep up the Reviews, and I'll keep up the chapters! Read, Review, Favorite and Enjoy!

* * *

Chapter 6: Stop Calling Me The Evil Queen!

Once having been put into the wheel chair Apple escorted Raven back to the girl's dormitory, where in they were soon faced by a problem. Raven, being wheel chair bound, could not get up the stairs, and due to circumstances unknown to them, the elevator was out too, tripling their transport problems, the supplies for fixing Raven's origin had yet to arrive which meant that she couldn't use magic to get up the stairs. Fortunately, the first floor rooms were exclusively for the disabled. Still figuring that Raven would be having trouble by herself Apple used her influence to take the bed right next to Raven's.

"Yah don't have to do this yah know Apple." Raven stated observing from out the window as Tiny moved the suitcase down from Apple's old room to the bottom floor.

"Of course I do silly! Someone has to look after you. That's what's friends are for!" Apple explained dragging her bag towards her side of the room, still more than a little bit aggravated that Kitty packed it back up right after she finished unpacking, but now she was a little glad.

"Maddie could have moved down here just as easily yah know. And now that you're here she's just gonna move into your room." Raven stated letting out a sigh.

"Then I'll just move into your room once you're better again!" Apple stated happily a big smile on her face. "Besides I could never bunk with Kitty after she went through my stuff without my permission." Apple explained dismissively.

"Fair enough." Raven commented cocking a brow.

"Ah speaking of... what are you gonna do about... yah know?" Apple asked looking awkwardly at Raven's leg, or lack there of.

"The Doctor's have contacted the wood family with my measurements, they're making a new leg for me as we speak, using the same brand of enchanted wood they used for Cedar. After the Docs attach it to me, my magic will take over from there, and in a couple of weeks it'll be like I never lost it." Raven waved off dismissively.

"That's great to hear!" Apple stated as her Snow fox Gala strutted into the room and curled up on her lap.

"In any case there's the Legacy Day rehearsals we have to worry about too." Raven explained scratching the diminutive dragon under her chin.

"Raven Queen you do not have to do anything!" Apple stated shooting straight up and rudely ejecting her pet from her lap. "Until such a time where you are in peak physical condition once more the only thing you are going to do is lay in that bed and rest!"

"It's a missing leg Apple, it's not a big deal." Raven stated prompting Apple's eye to begin twitching.

"RAVEN QUEEN!" Apple shouted putting in a scolding tone of voice. "It is a big deal! Good god mother I don't even know where to... How many times have you lost a limb before!?"

"I wouldn't say lost. This is the first time I've actually lost a part of me." Then a guilty look went all over the witches face. "Maybe temporarily detached is a better phrase."

To Apple's credit, it did take a impressive amount of will power to shriek into her pillow instead of at her BFFA.

"What do you mean 'temporarily detached!' Raven what in God Mother's name have you been doing these past seven years!?" Apple shouted her face bright red.

"If you have to ask..." Raven only looked guiltier now.

"No! No I don't wanna hear it!" Apple declared frantically waving her arms out in front of her. "If I agree to take you over to the rehearsals will you stop talking about why you're covered in scars, or why you've got fairy fungus, or giant spider venom in your veins, or why there's something wrong with your heart or..."

"APPLE!" Raven shook her friend out of her frantic ranting and raving.

"Breath In!" Apple sucked in a deep breath of fresh air. "Breath out!" Before expelling the now stale air.

"Alright new topic, new topic." Apple mumbled looking around the room to distract her from the walking horror story that is her roommate, trying to take her mind off the fact that Raven was standing on one leg right now.

"Nevermore!" Hearing her name called the dragon perked right up and flew over to the roommates as Apple sat Raven down on her bed. "Why is she so tiny again?"

"She's a rare cross breed." Raven explained scratching the diminutive dragon under her chin. "My Moth... family, took a particular species of dragon that's been in our family for generations called a Night Fury, and another species called a Jormangandr and used chimera magic to combine them together. As a result Smok's, that's the name of the dragon my mother kept, chicks gained the ability to alter their size to fit in any space."

"So the reason why she's so small right now..." Apple asked scratching the dragon around her horns. "She's fitting into the collar." Raven explained jingling the little studded collar in question.

"And the reason she was so big yesterday was because she was fitting herself outside! I get it." Apple exclaimed slamming her fist into the palm of her hand. "Brings new meaning to one size fits all." Apple laughed prompting Raven to roll her eyes.

"Well it's not like she can get that big on her own yet." Raven smirked knowingly as her eyes wandered to the clock. "Pumpkin Pasties look at the time!"

At once Raven and Apple scrambled to get ready, Apple bringing over a wheel chair and Raven taking a seat in it before they rushed over to the Charmitorium.

* * *

The Headmaster was in the process of taking attendance for the Legacy day rehearsal. Admittedly he was surprised to see Apple pushing Raven forward, attendance wouldn't be nearly as good as it is if it wasn't for the fact that no one thought that Raven would actually show up.

"Miss White, I see you brought Miss Queen with you as well." Milton stated eyeing the pair. "I understand that attendance is mandatory but loss of limb does count as extenuating circumstances."

"She was so insistent!" Apple countered defensively.

"For once I get to stand, er, sit in front of an entire room and no one is going to scream and run away from me." Raven stated a smirk on her face. "How can I refuse a offer like that?"

"So be it. Miss Yaga wanted to chat with you anyway." Milton stated gesturing to the witch who was sitting on a flying carpet with the rest of the faculty.

"Ah hey, I heard that someone wanted to talk to me?" The other teaching staff noted Raven's presence, though Baba didn't even look away from the stage. "It's me Raven Professor Yaga."

"Funny. The only Raven I know should be in bed on account of severe loss of limb." The elder witch replied in dry sarcasm.

"Touche. Well if you really don't want to talk to me I'll be on my way." Raven stated as she turned her chair around.

"Not so fast." The witch had other ideas though, her magic snaked around Raven's mid section and hoisted her into the air and seated her on a spare flying carpet. "If you don't intend to take the necessary time off for your own health I must take a bare minimum amount of precautions to ensure your health."

Opening up Raven's shirt, Baba whirled her finger through the air drawing a rune over Raven's right breast.

"What are you doing?" Raven asked her hands trying to hold her shirt together.

"For the next little while, any magical power that you generate, is going to pass over your origin and enter directly into my mine." The witch explained as she finished her spell.

"Sweet. Any chance this can be a permanent arrangement?" Raven asked more than a little hopeful while she buttoned up her shirt.

"SNARHAHAHAACK!" The elder witch cackled and sat Raven back down in her chair.

"Well it was worth a shot." Raven stated shrugging her shoulders.

"While we have your attention Miss Queen." Professor Charming stated aiming a look down at Raven. "It has come to my attention that you have a rather unpleasant dragon in your possession."

"Aha. So?" Raven asked looking at the teacher suspiciously.

"My class is in need of a good sparring partner for their lessons." The professor explained giving his most charming smile.

"Is this the type of lesson that ends with the sparring partner getting made into a pair of boots?" Raven asked observing the dirt under her finger nails.

"Not really no. Your home land is quite well known for it's... strict laws concerning endangered species." The heroic teacher visibly cringed at the thought. "Which is the reason why Hero 101 includes a class on the non-lethal incapacitation and transportation of dangerous species. Given that your friend is the size of a building, she seems like quite the excellent subject for the hard classes."

"Yah no, Nevermore can't get that big on her own, she's only a juvenile, she got pumped up on my magical power, which is how I managed to hurt myself in the first place need I remind you." Raven stated a amused look on her face.

"If your pet is unruly then perhaps you should bring her to my next class." Mr. Bear explained looking at Raven with a questioning look.

"I'll have to keep that mind Mr. Bear. But she wasn't being unruly, she was trained to do that." Raven explained a smirk on her face.

"Your dragon was trained to attack people?" The talking bear asked a hint of confusion and concern in his voice.

"She was trained to protect me. In case it wasn't obvious..." Raven pointed to where a leg had been days before. "People were trying to kill me!"

"Point." Mr. Bear stated turning his attention to the stage.

"Attention students, your attention please." The headmaster stated, prompting the half attention of the students, the other half was dedicated to nervous fear of Raven who was just rolling her eyes and ignoring the stares coming at her. "As you know in a short, few month's from now, you all will have your first chance to sign the story Book of Legends, as you will a year later, another year after that, and another year after that. Today you will be having a practice run, of sorts. Something to help vanquish feelings of anxiety and doubt. For the sake of moving things along smoothly, you will be going through the book, in reverse alphabetical order. Starting with Sparrow Hood."

And by smoothly, he meant that Raven would be third in line instead of third to last, at which point in time she would be out of their hair and everyone would be able to rest easy. Besides, the thief Sparrow Hood would be going first, and Raven already had to spank his hand away from her purse once already. So Sparrow went up to the book.

"I am Sparrow Hood, the next Robin Hood." The green clad student in question stated sighing and then signed his name in the Book of Legends stand in, otherwise known as a phone book.

"Thank you Mr. Hood. As you sign the book of legends you may either exit the Charmitorium, or return to your seats."

Thusly Sparrow vacated the premises at once. Rosabella Beauty seemed to have a bit of difficulty herself, though she looked more nervous than anything. And then it was Raven's turn, the microphone and the book stand had to be adjusted on account of her disability forcing her to sit down.

"Thank You Mr. Bear." Raven stated to the humanoid bear who helped her onto the stage. "I am Raven Queen. And before I do anything else I have something I'd like to say to all of you." At once Raven slammed the book shut prompting the audience to gasp. "I refuse! I refuse to bare the responsibility of my mother's crimes! I refuse to put up with people trying to kill me or my family because of the actions of a Mad Woman! I refuse to live in fear because of the cowardly populace of the world at large inching closer to the torches and pitchforks every single time I walk by! I refuse, to let people walk into my homeland, and treat the populace as dirt while they come in and take everything they please!" Now Raven stood up and hobbled over to the side of the book stand, revealing to the class at large her missing limb. "And I definitely refuse to put up with this nonsense all the bleeding time!" Raven sat back down in her chair, letting out a deep breath before she finished. "That is all." Raven wheeled the chair back over to the teachers again, and went onto Baba's spare flying carpet.

"Feel better now?" The elder witched asked looking at Raven knowingly, her outburst having filled the elder witch up with magical energy.

"It's nice when you don't have to worry about cursing people to death every time you get angry." Raven stated letting out a blissful smile. Raven prepared to roll herself over to Apple, but stopped when she saw the look of mortal terror on her features.

"Well that's a shot of magic if I've ever felt one." Baba stated concerned as she felt even more of Raven's magic course through her veins.

* * *

 **Review Section** :

Chica-Flick: Wish granted.

Zwei Eis: Glad you feel that way.

TheGreatStorycollector: Truth be told I don't know if that's the case either, I'm just going with eleven million views combined with my own personal reaction of 'Who the Hell is Swine-Heart?'


	7. Chapter 7

**Author's Note** : Another week, another chapter of what is quickly becoming one of my favorite stories to write. Read, Review, Favorite and Enjoy!

* * *

Chapter 7: We Need To Talk Snow White

In the headmaster's office, Milton was working on sorting through a large number of political paperwork that had piled up over the past decade, doing his best to fend off a migraine. But it was not the mountain of paperwork in front of him that was giving him his migraine, it was the person pacing back and forth in front of him.

"Of all the crazy! Reckless! Suicidal stunts she could possibly pull!"

First thing in the morning, which the Headmaster noted meant that he was there all night trying to manage this mess, on top of Apple White storming into his office and started ranting and raving about Raven and her ill advised speech the night before.

"Doesn't she know that if you don't sign the Story Book of Legends, that if you don't live out your story, you'll disappear!?" While Apple ranted and raved Milton's troll secretary came in carrying with her a trey with a cup of coffee.

"How long has she been like that?" Mrs. Trollsworth asked looking at Apple with disinterest.

"Two hours." Milton stated as he began drinking the steaming hot beverage.

"Impressive." Mrs. Trollsworth stated her dry tone of voice implying that she really wasn't impressed.

"Not really, it's mostly the same thing over and over again." Milton explained taking a deep sigh and returned to focusing on his paper work, having given up on actually talking to Apple a long time ago.

"I have a old troll method for making disobedient children obey, if I have your permission sir." The troll woman asked, a predatory smile turning the corner of her otherwise neutral face.

"So long as you don't physically hurt her I don't care." Milton Grim on other hand was very tied and just wanted to rub his headache away.

"AND ANOTHER THING...!" Mrs. Trollsworth moved into Apple's personal space and and effectively pinned her into place by grabbing the chair behind her with both of her arms.

"RRRAAAAAAAWWWWWWWRRRRR!"

The blown back Apple fell into the chair thoroughly stunned by the secretaries outburst and began panting, even without proper fainting training she looked like she was going to do a pretty good job.

"Thank you Mrs. Trollsworth. I'll take it from here." The Headmaster stated taking another deep swig of his drink before he continued. "And as for you young lady: Where oh where do I even begin with you?" The Headmaster asked in a displeased tone of voice, one that brought Apple out of being stunned though she remained silent, no other noise coming from her other than the sound of a gulp. "How about we clear up that misconception you seem to have: no one, is going to disappear, if they don't sign the Storybook of Legends." That took Apple back a bit.

"But sir, my mother always told me..." Apple began in a confused tone of voice.

"Don't believe me?" Milton walked over to the wall to his left, where a framed fossil of a large beetle was being kept. "It is commonly believed, that this fossil is roughly three hundred million years old." The headmaster walked over to another framed artifact, this one of a arrow head. "This human made arrow head, is approximately twenty Thousand years old." The Milton went over to a framed case this one depicting a book, a bible. "This book, is roughly six hundred years old." Finally Milton's tour of his office ended at a painting depicting various individuals lined up to sign their names in a book. "This painting, commemorating the creation of the Storybook of Legends, is exactly three hundred years old." Once again the headmaster took a seat in his chair, only this time he dug out his own Mirror Phone and quickly crunched some numbers on it. "In other words, it is believe that the this planet is over one million times older than The Story Book of Legends, Human and various other civilizations are roughly seventy times older than the Story Book of Legends, literature itself is twice as old as the story book of legends. This world, is far older than The Story Book of Legends, and it will by far outlive it. Still not convinced?" Now the Headmaster brought up a phone number on the Mirror Phone.

"What is this?" Apple asked looking at the number confused.

"This number, belongs to the first Evil Fairy, the oldest still living individual who has ever signed their name in the Story Book of Legends, she is approximately four hundred years old, you can call her some time if you want." Next the Headmaster brought up two lists on his phone, one was thirty names long, and the other three hundred names long. "The one on the right is a list of all the students currently at this school, the other is of Story book students, they are approximately one tenth of the student population. To put it another way nine out of ten students, are not obligated to sign that book. If you are not convinced, then you should pay these two a visit." The Headmaster scribbled down a address on a scrap piece of paper for Apple. "Two Fairy Tale students, who have not signed their names in the book. Now, do you have any questions?"

"If what you say is true..." Apple stated tentatively taking the note as if it were the answers to all of her problems. "Then how was it that everyone was led to believe that we would disappear if not for the book being signed?"

"Indeed at the time of the book's creation it was believed that without it's stabilizing influence on the world, it would fall into chaos. My exact words were that the Book maintains the balance of this world, a set of scales unbalanced still exists, Ms. White. What the book is, is simply a peace treaty, that magically binds those who sign it, generation after Generation." The Headmaster stated looking outside of the window to his office.

"A Magically binding peace treaty?" Apple asked the words still hard to believe.

"Those who sign the treaty, agree to the terms dictated therein, a mutual cease fire, between the six great kingdoms in a time of war." Turning around his chair the Headmaster, looked at a series of six paintings, the first of which depicted giant men who lived in the clouds with wolves. "The Giants of the Cloud Kingdom." The second a place of Madness, like surreal artwork. "The people of Wonderland." The third, a group of fairies and Wooden Golems. "The Fairies of Neverland." Fourthly a painting depicting a royal family that could easily be Apple's parents. "The Humans of Camelot." Fifthly, a under water city filled with sea folk and mer-people. "The Mer of Atlantis." And finally a painting full of monsters surrounding a familiar looking young woman sitting on a throne. "And of course, the Monsters of Riordan."

"She looks Familiar." Apple commented looking at the painting.

"As she should, her direct descendant being your best friend and all that." The Head master stated sitting back down at the table.

"That's...?"

"The first Evil Queen? Yes. And believe me when I tell you that she did a right proper job of earning that title. There are still craters in this world named in her honor." The Headmaster stated leaning back in his chair.

"Why was there a Peace Treaty, I mean don't those usually..." Apple asked a look of mortal terror on her features.

"Follow times of war? Yes, one of the worst." The headmaster stated turning around in his chair and looking out the window.

"As usual it started with humanity, a particularly xenophobic royal family sought to purge this world of everything it deemed impure, and went to war with the other great races. For a while they were winning, overwhelming numbers combined with their iron weapons and armor's natural resistance to magic made for a effective combination. When they invaded Wonderland though the original Queen of Hearts got the idea to ally themselves with the other races. After that the humans only barely survived do to the kindness of the Queen of Riordan." Milton explained shiver going up his spine.

"The first Evil Queen?" Apple asked looking rather surprised.

"The second, her Daughter, but the first to sign her name in the Book of Legends. The binding contract was her idea. She did not see reason why the people of her enemy's kingdom should be made to suffer for the stupidity of the royal family." Milton explained steepling his fingers.

"My family was the one who was responsible for the single greatest war to ever rock the lands?" Apple asked shock plastered all over her features.

"You could say that. But on the other hand, the only reason why the treaty worked was because of the Second Evil Queen's step sister marrying into the royal family." Milton explained as he resumed going through the paper work.

"Her step sister? You don't mean...?" Apple asked shock plastered on her features.

"The first Snow White? Yes, they were quite close growing up if memory serves. Now if you'll excuse me there is a rather important matter that has come to my attention that I need to look into. You are dismissed."

Apple gave the Headmaster a polite Curtsy before she ran off. But after Apple left, he could hear a distinctive sound coming from his personal study, a sort of clanging noise, of metal hitting metal, but not like a clash of swords, the pacing was more like someone clapping.

* * *

Apple in the mean time had gone down to Maddie's Haberdashery and Teashop, where in she was about to tell her circle of friends about what the Headmaster had told her.

"A peace treaty? Well that's unexpected." Briar stated taken back a little bit. "Suddenly going to sleep for a hundred years seems a little... excessive."

"Assuming that this is true." Blondie stated in a doubting tone as she dutifully scribbled down notes for her next story. "Shouldn't you be telling Raven this and not us?"

"I tried! She didn't come back to our room last night, she didn't answer any of my calls or hexts, she wasn't in any of our classes this morning!" Apple let out a frustrated groan as she slammed her head against the table, the reminder about class prompting Briar to look up at the clock and saw that their lunch break was half over. "When I asked the teachers they wouldn't tell me anything! I can't even get a hold of her doctors either!"

"If it walks like a raven, talks like a raven, and disappears like a raven then what is it?" Maddie riddled leaning over the table and dropping off Apple spiced, Rosemary and Honey dabbed teas.

"What does that even mean!?" Apple shouted yanking her hair and shoving her face into her hands.

"Perhaps she means to imply that we should be looking at what has things in common with Raven?" Briar asked sipping rose flavored tea.

"Oh I got this! I'm great with Riddles!" Blondie stated holding her chin in her hand. "Let's see here. Let's look at people who have something in common with Raven... Ginger? Witch and Villain." Blondie pointed out prompting Maddie to simply shake her head amused.

"I called her earlier, nothing." Apple stated prompting her to sip from her tea.

"Faybelle." Apple Shook her head.

"Ramona." Again even more frustrated.

"Perhaps instead of going for the obvious suspects we should instead try something else." Then a thought occurred to Briar.

"Hey I know..." Was the last thing she uttered before falling asleep on the spot. Before Anyone could actually say anything else, Maddie let loose with horn in Briar's ear waking her up. "If Raven's doctors are missing too, maybe they're doing something with Raven?" Briar finished like she never fell asleep.

"Of course!" Apple stated putting her hands down on the table And standing up. "Those doctors would never risk Raven's life by keeping distractions with them while they operated on her! Briar call Ginger, Maddie get Raven's favorite tea! We've got a get well soon party to throw!"

* * *

Clank, Clank, Clank. That was the sound she made, echoing sarcasm towards the headmaster as she clapped Iron clad hands together. It was only when he had chosen to enter the study in order to access his files, that Milton Grimm was able to address the issue first hand.

"So you finally, learned, your, lesson." The prisoner on the other side of the magic mirror kept her distance far away, hidden by the shadows if not for those darned red eyes. "Why the change of heart? Pressuring students to sign the book until they go completely insane worked out so well for you last time." A clanging noise echoed throughout the room as the owner of those bright red eyes walked forward. The heavy medieval armor she was wearing over tattered magicians robes clattered as the statuesque figure of the pale, scowling, demon eyed woman being held inside of the mirror finally revealed herself. "After all _father_ look at your crowning achievement. Unlike the inbred whores you favored I was not born the way I am, rather it took years of your _guiding hand_ to reach this stage. My shadow cast over Wonderland, my legacy cursing my family, me wrapped in these Iron shackles, trapped scattered across the mirror dimension, each of my view points into the world wrapped in a fortress, a prison, withing a prison, within several prisons including your school where I sit as a example as to what villains should live up to. Take a break every once in a while to admire your workmanship!" As the Headmaster finished gathering together the folders he almost left the study having not said one single word to his prisoner. But then he stopped, his back turned to his daughter.

"You are right about one thing. I will never forget what I did to you. The Blood on your hands will haunt me to my grave, assuming I don't awaken as one of the cursed abominations you are so fond of. And until such a time where I am dragged off to my final resting place. I will never stop atoning for what I have done."

* * *

 **Review Section** :

Guest: I only hope I can live up to your high standards.

Wyldclaw: I agree.

TheGreatStorycollector: If that's who you really are, it only goes higher from here.


	8. Chapter 8

**Author's Note** : Ah reviews, how you heal my world weary soul. Read, Review, Favorite and Enjoy!

* * *

Chapter 8: Let's Try This Again Snow White

Raven had been brought in to surgery, laying down flat on her stomach a mask was put over her face as she breathed in anesthetic gas, needles from fluid packs inserted in her arm and a mirror making beeping noises as it tracked her heart beat. Opening up the back of the surgical gown Cat-Eye made a incision going down Raven's right shoulder blade.

"Sister, remind me: we're cutting open young Raven Queen today correct?" The feline eyed doctor asked looking down at Raven puzzled.

"Yes." Thief-Hand replied as she organized surgical instruments.

"Then what is that?" At Cat-Eye's pointing both doctors peered down at the open wound, where something was moving around in Raven's body. Something that leaped out and attacked them.

* * *

"Alright ladies! One last time!" That afternoon, the assembled group of Apple White, her cousin Ashlynn Ella, Blondie Lockes, Briar Beauty, Faybelle Thorn, Maddie Hatter, Kitty Cheshire, Ramona Badwolf, Ginger Breadhouse, and Cerise Hood arrived in the hallway.

"Raven's favorite cake, Chocolate Fudge!"Ginger Breadhouse stated briefly opening up the box of the dark colored cake in question.

"Raven's favorite tea, Pumpkin spice!" Maddie stated holding up the tea pot filled with the liquid in question.

"Hope y'all don't mind." Ramona stated as she tugged over the resident red hooded girl and put her arm around her. "But I brought along my goodie goodie. Say Hi Cerise."

"H-Hi!" Cerise stated as she nervously waved her hand through the air. "Nice to meet you all."

"After that little speech she gave the other day she walked up to me and asked that she wanted to meet Raven." Taking her arm off of Cerise Ramona went to the door. "So if we can get this party started now..." With a loud thunk, Ramona walked right into the front door. "What the Grimm?" Push or Pull the door wouldn't open no matter how hard Ramona would try. "Why I outta..." Ramona went back into the waiting room and came back with a wooden bench slung over her shoulder as she prepared to use it to break the door down like a battering ram.

"Stop you idiot look." Faybelle pointed above the door where a bright red sign informing them of a quarantine in effect. "What the hell did that mad woman put in Raven?" Putting her hand on the door Faybelle let loose with sensor type magic.

"What are you doing?" Apple asked watching Faybelle work.

"You might not be aware of this princess, but we magic folk have a few extra senses than you. Four to be exact, this is extra sensory detection and... oh Troll Spit!" Faybelle snapped before she turned her attention to back to the others. "We need to get the Headmaster down here. Now!"

"On it!" A gust of wind accompanied Cerise disappearing out through the door and down the hall.

"Blondie Lockes here at the Three Army Surgeons office with a emergency Mirror Cast!" Looking over Faybelle narrowed a glare at Blondie as she held her Mirror pad away from her.

"What are you doing you mad woman!?" Faybelle barked narrowing a glare at Blondie.

"Faybelle Thorn." Blondie shoved the offending mirror in question into Faybelle's face. "Would you like to tell the viewers of the reasons why they should steer clear of the Doctor's office?"

" _Thrice damned dog._ " Faybelle mentally cursed as she prepared to address the school. "Someone set off a curse with suspicious similarities to the Sleeping Rose curse used by my family in the Doctor's office."

"You said it was similar." Blondie stated quickly pulling the mirror pad back to her mouth. "How's it different?"

"For one thing I don't think there's anyone asleep in there." Faybelle grabbed the mirror pad.

"Hey!"

"I'm downloading a app onto your Mirror Pad that Raven created that will grant it extrasensory perception." Faybelle explained as she handed the item in question back to Blondie.

"Raven created this?" Blondie asked holding the mirror pad up to the room as it created a sort of... nondescript grey screen of what was happening inside.

"Don't be so impressed, she has a mirror knack after all she was made to tamper with those things!" Faybelle scolded while she moved out of the way for Blondie to scan the room.

"As you can see students of Ever After High, or if I'm reading this correctly, while the vines have taken hold of the Three Army Surgeons they appear to be conscious." Blondie noted the figures that had appeared to be waving at them. "Currently we are working to establish communications with those who are inside."

* * *

Cerise ran up right to the Headmaster's office, a dust cloud of almost comical size having followed her and was now billowing to the front door. Knocking on it repeatedly Cerise barely noticed the secretary gesturing to the top of her head. By the time Cerise realized that she meant her hood was down the door swung open and smacked Cerise in the nose hard enough to leave it a broken bloodied mess.

"Out of my way! Out of my way!" Milton snapped as he rushed out of his office.

"Ouch..." Cerise moaned, rubbing her face where her nose had been broken, then she felt her side tickle as the vibrator on her phone went off. "Yo." The Next Red riding hood said into the offending contraption in question. "On it." Cerise rushed out of the office and cut off Milton, holding her phone that clearly had Ramona's caller ID on it. "It's for you."

"Hmm." Taking the phone with a touch more effort than necessary the Headmaster spoke into it.

"I assume you saw the Mirror cast?" Ramona's voice asked, full of dry sarcasm.

"I'm on my way right now." Milton stated resuming his task like a man possessed.

"We need you in your office headmaster." Apple's voice, calming, respectful and full of authority, Milton blamed her mother's genes. "You're the only one who can communicate with the Three Army Surgeons inside of the Quarantine."

"The School's loud speakers, of Course!" Quickly the Headmaster went back into his office and held down the speaking button on the button for the doctor's office, and put Cerise's phone on speaker. "Cat-Eye, Swine-Heart, Thief-Hand!"

"Never thought I'd be happy to hear from you old man." Was Cat-Eye's dry sardonic greeting.

"What's your status?" The Headmaster asked sharp commanding tones setting in.

"Soon as we cut young Miss Queen open fire spitting carnivorous plants sprang out tried to eat us." Swine-Heart stated a small hint of relief creeping into his voice. "I'm just grateful these things don't have stomachs."

"Fire and carnivorous?" The look on the Headmaster's face was one of horror. "Snap Dragons."

"That'd be my guess sir." Thief-Hand replied a even tone in her voice. "Right now we're just trying not to look delicious."

"Time out." Cerise stated her hands forming a T. "What's a Snap Dragon?"

"A particularly nasty variety of cursed plant." The Headmaster stated leaning into his chair. "The previous Evil Queen created them while she was still going to school here."

"As a project for Evilnomics?" Cerise asked confused and unable to understand a practical purpose for fire spewing meat eating plants.

"I wish, they would have been far easier to dispose of then. Whatever blast of magic, the Explosion to quote Mrs. Yaga, that created them transformed every single plant from the smallest blade of grass to the tallest of trees from the far side of the Enchanted Forest to the far end of Bookend into the blight on all the realms. It took years to get rid of them all." After all Weed Killer was meant for weeds that couldn't fight back, even then he knew deep down they still lived, in the deepest parts of the forest where things that can defend themselves from the plants dwelt, things that kept them from getting to the plants themselves ironically enough.

"Cursed magical plants coming out of Raven's body?" Apple asked a look of horror on her features. "Isn't Raven suppose to not be using magic right now?"

"Great. Not only is Raven in the middle of this, but those things are killing her too." Faybelle snapped glaring at the door hatefully.

"Then why are they only in the infirmary?" Briar asked over the phone and perhaps trying to change the topic from something less horrifying. "I can't so much as get a bruise without my vines swarming ten city blocks."

"The infirmary was built to handle situations like this." The Headmaster stated, cold neutral eyes on the Mirror cast, as Ramona tore a panel off it's hinges exposing wires that gave the door power. "Break the quarantine, and that will no longer be the case."

"Then it would be wise to have counter measures in place first." Faybelle scanned the room, Blondie was already working to hotwire the door open, Ramona was making threatening gestures at the door bench ready to tear it down, Maddie and Kitty was looking through the Hatter's hat for something to help them.

"What I don't get is why is this happening now? I mean Raven lost a leg, you'd think we'd get a reaction out of..." Briar gestured to the door holding back fire breathing plants. "All of that."

" _Smart little inbred princess._ " Faybelle thought her lips curling into a predatory grin.

"Maddie..." Faybelle looked over to Maddie who triumphantly pulled out a flame thrower and shot flame at the ceiling with a look of sadistic glee. "Put the fire spitter away, these things are weak against cold." Like the ice bomb that took Raven's leg in the first place.

"Oh frozen ground bares no weeds!" Maddie banged the weapon with her fist and it spat out a breath of cold hair that nearly froze Kitty's face.

"Now as soon as Blondie gets that door open..."

"I'll turn that place into a winter Wonderland!" Maddie stated her features grinning knowingly as she readied her weapon. Knowing her it really would be like Wonderland.

"And I'll go in and get everyone out before they even know what hit em!" Kitty stated half invisible as she prepared to dash inside to get everyone inside out.

"Then I'll slam the door shut before whatever else is inside can get out!" Blondie stated cables ready to form a connection.

"You four behind me!" Ramona stated using one arm to force Faybelle, Ashlynn, Apple and Briar behind her, ready to hit whatever came through that door hard enough that it would wish it never crawled out of Raven.

"On the count of three." Faybelle stated holding three fingers in the air. "1." Maddie aimed her weapon at the door with manic glee. "2." Kitty Ironically took a position similar to the downward dog as she prepared to rush at the door with everything she had. "3!"

Two wires slamming together shot the bolted door open, a wintry blast that smelled like breath mints on steroids met fire and won creating a layer of frost, a gust of wind had Kitty go in and haul everyone out, before the door slammed shut like a guillotine on the head of one of the curse fire breathers.

"Th-Thanks!" Cat-Eye mumbled, grateful as color started to return to his features.

But not everyone got out unscathed, Raven wasn't waking up, the normal equipment for diagnosing a condition like this was in that lab, but the incision that the plants had sprung from was still in Raven's back, and even a amateur could tell what was inside.

"Oh that's not good." Faybelle commented horrified.

A mass like broken glass, connected to veins from where magic was meant to flow throughout Raven's body. Raven's origin was shattered.

* * *

Milton was furious, he slammed the doors to his study open.

"What's the matter headmas..." The Evil Queen was cut off mid taunt, catching the sight of her half dead daughter on Blondie's mirrorcast. "What have you been doing with my daughter?" Red magical smoke, piping hot fury that was strong enough to bleed through the mirror prison, billowing through the magic proofed armor. The Evil Queen was the Angry Queen right now.

"The real question is what are we going to do to save her?" The Headmaster asked pointing his cane accusingly toward the witch in the mirror.

* * *

 **Review Section** :

Chad0165: Thank you. And I am told that my story has similarities to Mob Psycho 100. Don't get me wrong I've seen the show myself and read the manga, so I can see the parallels. But with the understanding that Raven's magic in Ever After High is powered by negative emotions including the idea of the counter A adds to the drama and B shows Raven's difficulty in living in highschool.

Thegreatstorycollector: Firstly, I read Sigmu's stories too, and I liked the idea of the Evil Queen secretly being Milton's daughter and by extension Raven's Grandfather, just as I understand how hurt the Evil Queen as young girl would be with the understanding that her father has set out to make her life miserable only adds to her steep decline in sanity. Something if in the unlikely scenario where I do go down the Destiny path, then I've left open multiple routes for that. Keep my options wide open you understand. And yes, Apple very much has freaked out, because of the way that she's been raised is if Raven, her best friend, doesn't sign the book, then she will go poof. And as for the Headmaster, I believe that people have a natural obligation to properly do the job that they have been assigned to do. Finally as for the 'formality' of the book, every story has a grain of truth, the ones where the safety of the entire world depends upon a bunch of highschool students signing a book? More grains than others.


	9. Chapter 9

**Author's Note** : Ah reviews, how I love you. Read, Review, Favorite and Enjoy!

* * *

Chapter 9: Let's Go On a Quest Snow White.

Raven was hooked up to a life support machine, a oxygen mask was feeding fresh air into her body, several bags full of magical potions and blood were hanging above her head connected to Raven's body via tubes as they flowed into her body, a mirror for a headboard beeped regularly, monitoring the beat of the girl's heart of flesh and blood, and a massive glass bauble was sitting beside her with a ball of violet smoke floating around it, connected to Raven's body via what looked like fiber-optic cables, magical power being added to it by Faybelle and the school's various other spell casters. From the balcony Apple looked down at the barely alive Raven as the elaborate life support spells and potions did everything they could to keep her going.

"I... I don't even know what they're doing down there." Apple stated, a mortified defeated expression on her face.

"If knowing helps." Ginger stated adjusting her glasses while she observed the equipment surrounding Raven. "One of those bags are full of bicorn blood. It's full of high concentrations of magical energy, in order to replace what Raven has lost. Another is mermaid blood, to increase her damaged supply of life energy. That big bauble down there is a phylactery, a temporary vessel of the soul."

"That, big mass of smoke down there is Raven's soul?" Apple asked both afraid at the very important thing that was no longer in Raven's body and yet mystified by the beautiful lines it made as it swished around inside.

"If you're worried about it, you shouldn't be, it's able to maintain all of Raven's bodily functions... as they are." Ginger noted observing Raven's unconscious form. "I wouldn't worry, between the three army surgeons, the head master, and Mrs. Yaga this mess will be sorted out in no time."

* * *

"There..." The Evil Queen stated as she finished using her finger to draw a magic circle on the inside of her mirror. "That's the formula to disable the Snap Dragon barrier." The Evil Queen stated as Baba Yaga scribbled down the last of the information. "I wouldn't try and memorizing it old man, the code scrambles itself every time you use it, and the barrier will be back up after a hour."

"You don't expect us to be able to complete the surgery on your daughter in a hour do you?" The Headmaster asked observing the elder witch as she left.

"I expect you to do nothing!" A surge of red smoke accompanied a surge of movement, the Evil Queen leaping out of a chair to glare hatefully at her father. "Except maybe screw up again! After all, that is what 'The Voice of Neutrality' is suppose to do isn't it? Step back and watch as the witches obediently line up to be burnt at the stake! You may have stood back and watched as the wolves 'toughen me up a little' but I have done and will continue do everything within my power to keep my daughter safe!"

"It is a shame your precautions destroyed your daughter's origin." The Headmaster stated while he looked at the dirt underneath his finger nails.

"RRRRAAAARRRGGGHHH!" Blood colored smoke formed into a screeching face as the Evil Queen tried to leap out of her prison to rip her father's eyes out. "THE ONLY REASON WHY MY DAUGHTER'S LIFE WAS AT STAKE IN THE FIRST PLACE IS BECAUSE SHE'S BEING HELD PRISONER IN THE LANDS OF YOU STUPID, RACIST, SEXIST, XENOPHOBIC PEOPLE! BECAUSE SHE HAS TO LIVE IN THE FEAR THAT SHE WILL BE PERSECUTED JUST BECAUSE OF WHAT SHE IS!"

The smokey construct dissolved, the Headmaster for the most part remained unfazed, taking a moment to brush imaginary dust off of himself.

"And who's fault is it, that she's had to grow up outside of her homelands, away from people who love and understand her?" The Headmaster accusingly gestured to the witch. "Her own mother for example." The red in the Witch Queens eyes only deepened, but she leaned back into her seat with her fingers folded together.

"Pray I never get out of this mirror old man." Spitting out one last death threat shadow took hold over the mirror once more, leaving only a pair of glowing red orbs to glare a hole in the back of the Headmaster's head.

"And now we make with the death threats, lovely talking to you again my dear daughter." Milton replied sarcastically, his tone implying a tired routine.

* * *

In the school's armory, the members of Heroics 101 were getting weapons ready, swords, shields, a dagger or two, crossbows, enough bolts to sink a hoard of cattle, and leather armor.

"Are you boys going somewhere?" Apple asked standing in the doorway leading into the armory.

Her villain, _her best friend_ , was lying in a hospital bed half dead and these people looked ready to go Bandersnatch hunting.

"Apple!" Daring, half dressed in leather, rushed over to give Apple a reassuring hug. "It's alright! Everything's gonna be okay." The knight in training soothed making circles in the small of Apple's back.

"Oh I know it will." Apple pushed her fiance away before grabbing him by his cheeks and pulling him down. "Now. What are you people doing?"

"According to the, and don't slap me here, Evil Queen..." A cool fury appeared in Apple's eyes, but she didn't lash out and allowed her Fiance to continue. "She says that she made something that we can use to fix Raven, we just gotta go get it. Then everything will be Fairy Tale perfect again."

"Oh really?" Apple let go of her Fiance, but her suspicious scowl gazed around the room looking at the students who were getting ready for a small war. "Pray tell, what manner of item requires this kind of preparation to retrieve?"

"I don't know, something she left with the guard posted to protect the boarder leading into Riordan is all I know." Daring stated taking the liberty of admiring his reflection in his sword before he put it away. "Don't worry, we'll slay the deadly monster and come back with it's head, easy peasy shampoo squeezy."

"Take Ramona with you." Apple stated in a uncompromising tone of voice.

"Apple babe I know you're distressed and all but..."

"Ramona is from Riordan, she knows the lay of the land, she can fight, and besides..." Apple went down Daring's shirt and pulled out a rather large wolf's tooth he was wearing around his neck. "You don't want me telling all your classmates how you really got this did you?"

Oh and what a tale it was, how Daring had valiantly defended Cerise Hood from the Big Bad Wolf Ramona and came that close to have his head bit off by the beast only to defend himself with his sword and take one of her teeth as his prize before sending her to the infirmary. Much better then the version Cerise told her, in which Daring had managed to woo the Gigan wolf for all of thirty seconds, before he did the same to her. Then Ramona spun around and cocked him so hard she broke every bone in his body and smacked her jaw on his sword hard enough to knock one of her teeth out. And Apple was right there like the good wife she was soothing his woes while he cried into his pillow after Swine-Heart put him back together. Apple needed to bribe the werewolf with a royal favor of her choosing to keep that story off of Blondie's Mirror cast.

"Hi there." As if on cue Ramona appeared in the doorway, many students instinctively reaching for their weapons. "She makes a good point yah know. Course if you're'll worried about not having enough supplies for the trip, I'd be happy to make some, room!"

"Room is not the issue here Ms. Badwolf." Professor Charming stepped out from the crowd, hidden away somewhere behind the rack of swords. "We are going into dangerous territory, taking someone along we cannot trust is... ill advised."

"Ain't that what I should be telling you?" Ramona asked accusingly pointing a clawed finger at the teacher in question. "Pretty faces like yours is a dime a dozen, and I can usually find them leading the witch hunts for our crippled little witch. So unless you got someone big and bad breathing down your neck, how can I trust you to get what Raven needs to stay alive?"

"Don't trust him, trust me." Pushing past the charming professor Sparrow walked out to meet the werewolf. "I am from from Riordan too. I've suffered the same stigma as the son of the legendary outlaw as Raven has as the daughter the Queen of Evil. The same people who'd come for her would come for me. And I trust these guys not to do that."

"Do you trust this girl Sparrow?" Professor Charming asked cocking a suspicious brow at the pair.

"With my life." Sparrow stated proudly, prompting Ramona to let loose a predatory smirk.

"Then there's no problem in bringing her along." King Charming stated, prompting some of the students to object. "Concerns can be filed directly to the young miss in question." The only sound left was the sound of Ramona's knuckles cracking. "Good."

* * *

Later that day Apple made her way back to the room she bunked with Raven, Kitty and Maddie were already inside, having tea, though she hesitated to call it a party.

"What of our Black Birdie with the clipped wings?" Maddie asked the scent of the pumpkin spice tea she brewed for Raven in the air, she must be depressed.

"I don't know!" Apple sat down on Raven's bed, disturbing the totem pole that was Nevermore, Gala, Carrolloo the Caterpillar and Earl Grey the Dormouse stacked on top of one another. "She was hooked up to a bunch of stuff Ginger was spitting gibberish about, her soul was in a big glass thing and Daring of all people is on the team to get the new organ for her!" Apple wanted to cry, Kitty provided a sympathetic pat on her back.

"We know dear, but it's best for you to vent your feelings of distress." Kitty explained hugging Apple to her.

"The boys will succeed, but they'll need a little bit of help." To this end Maddie turned her attention to Nevermore. "They're traveling by the mirror in Bookend's armory." Maddie explained, the look on her face that of someone who knew more then they were letting on.

Nodding her head, Nevermore made for the open window, only to be intercepted by Apple.

"I know you're worried about her too Nevermore. But don't worry _hic_..." Apple hiccuped worriedly. "Everything's gonna be okay."

"Apple sweetie, I know you're in the middle of something here, but do let go of the dragon, for your own good." Maddie stated amused sympathy on her features.

"What?" Apple looked at the two girls puzzled, until the sound of a crunch accompanied a throbbing pain in her hand. "Ouch!" A V shaped mark was left on Apple's hand from Nevermore biting it.

"She tried to warn yah." Kitty stated unable to hide her bursting out in laughter.

At once the Dragon dived into a mouse hole, shrinking out of her collar in the process. Apple leaned out the window, listening to the way the wall rumbled as Nevermore wormed her way through to the other side, before popping out of another hole in the wall outside and quickly taking on the form of a seven foot long dragon.

"Oh No you don't!" Apple leaped out and grabbed the size changer by her neck. "You are not going anywhere but back into our room right now!" Nevermore for the most part barely even noticed the extra weight, already use to Raven riding around on her, and simply took off into the air. It was at that point in time where Apple opened her eyes. "KYAAAAAAHHHH!"

That Nevermore did notice. Painfully noticed. No matter, she was already over Book end, and the students of Heroics 101 were stepping through the mirror already. At least they would be, if not for dive bombing dragons.

"Did anyone else just see Apple riding Raven's dragon?"

* * *

 **Review Section** :

TheGreatStoryCollector: I noticed. Oh no offense taken, Fan Fiction is by definition taking someone else's ideas and either improving upon them or failing to.

Guest: As I said already, my take on Headmaster Grimm is based on the books, whom upon being met by the cards dealt to him by Raven concerning the Evil Queen issue, instead of working on elaborate and often self destructive schemes trying to get her to sign the thing that she's clearly never going to sign, he instead works to find someone who would genuinely benefit from the role of the Evil Queen and offer them the position instead.

Charlie: Hmm... Like I said before, Raven does have a few options for that, and Apple has inherited her mother's scheming devious and manipulative mind. If anyone can figure it out, it is her.


	10. Chapter 10

**Author's Note** : Ah reviews, how I love you, and just four away from having three reviews, to every one chapter too. It has been something of a long term goal of mine for my stories in case any of you didn't know. Read, Review, Favorite, and Enjoy!

 **Anointed** **Author's Note** : First order of business, Apple and her reactions to death. What I wanted to show here is that death is something that Apple was raised to be able to ignore. So she did so in favor of trying to figure out why Nevermore killed these people. None the less I did make some changes here, namely having Apple actively restrain Nevermore in a effort to keep the body count from going any higher.

* * *

Chapter 10: I am Here to Rescue You, Magic Mirror

Admittedly it took Apple a minuet to get her barrings back together, she'd strongly suspected that Nevermore wasn't expecting to find herself in the middle of a shop when she dived headfirst into that mirror portal. Moaning Apple pulled herself onto her feet, her vision blurry from something wet dripping into her eyes from above. A second crash snapped her to attention as Nevermore shook the remains of whatever they landed on off of her. Irritated, the dragon shot a blast of fire at the nearby door while Apple stumbled about before collapsing again.

* * *

"Apple!? APPLE!"

Apple awoke to the feeling of something getting injected into her neck, looking over to a window she saw that her head had been bandaged, and checking her pulse was Dexter.

"Oh what happened?" The sore girl who was rapidly losing the feeling in her body from pain killers asked.

"You tell us. One minuet we were marching through the mirror over here, and the next we're being dive bombed by you on the back of Raven's dragon." Having completed his check up of Apple, Dexter walked out through the destroyed store front of a window, where in he saw a town that had been ransacked.

"What happened here?" Apple asked, mixed looks of confusion and horror on her features.

"Again, you got here first." As Dexter said that, a familiar screech that haunted his dreams ever since the night Raven lost her leg echoed throughout the air. "Speaking of, I believe that's the dragon you came here with."

A group of knights had surrounded Nevermore. The dragon attacked first, leaping onto the shoulders of one of the men, spiked tail and wings smacked weapons away from her while close quarters blasts of fire rendered the men unrecognizable via the face. A quick snap of the neck accompanied the fall of Nevermore's make shift perch, burning flesh and melted metal forming a upward draft as Nevermore took off into the air. The men attempted to load their crossbows to fire at the dragon, but were not fast enough as she rained down bursts of fire knocking them over, the dragon walked over and pinned the last surviving and conscious knight to the ground.

"Nevermore!" Apple shouted rushing over to the black beast with a knight pinned beneath her in question. "What are you doing!?" Apple was pointedly not looking at chard masses of burnt flesh and melted metal on the ground. Her stomach was turning already and it took a great deal of will power to keep it down.

The dragon only gave Apple a dissatisfied snarl as she resumed looking into her prisoner's eyes.

"Get this monster off of me!" Apple narrowed a glare at the soldier.

"In a minuet." Apple grabbed hold of Nevermore's collar, the strength that was enhanced by years of dining on Riordan's buffing type food was loosing against the naturally boisterous strength of a dragon. "Are you here investigating who ransacked the town?" Apple asked, she wanted to believe in the best of people, but Nevermore attacked this man and already killed his associates, and while she has not known the dragon for very long, she did understand that she wasn't in the business of randomly attacking people.

"Investigate it? We perpetrated it!" Apple's features cringed up like she smelt something disgusting, and it wasn't the chard meat that was a few feet away.

"Why?" Apple asked warding off her feelings of disgust.

"Why else? A Riordan Town harboring the Evil Queen's cult, the Scar backs! Providing food and troops to the Riordan war machine!" The man only spat out some propaganda sounding thing in response.

"Talk, or I shall let the dragon eat you." Even though Apple said that, she strongly suspected that she wouldn't be 'letting' Nevermore do anything any time soon. That said, Nevermore still reinforced Apple's threat with a snap at the man's nose.

"I do not talk to the allies of the Evil Queen!" The knight snapped, Nevermore's jaws inches from his face despite both his and Apple's best efforts.

"That woman has been in a cage for the better part of a decade, what does she have to do with it?" Apple asked cocking a suspicious brow.

"Do not play the fool with me girl!" The Knight stated between struggling to keep Nevermore away from his throat. "She is no less the Evil Queen as her mother and her mother before her!" Apple admittedly was taken back by that statement, so much so that she felt Nevermore slip just a little, it was not The Evil Queen these people had a ire against, it was Raven, but they were after her because she's the daughter of the previous Evil Queen. "Even a blind fool can see that this town has become a breeding ground for the Evil Queen's minions, funneling resources into their war machine!"

Apple admitted that she knew very little about warfare, but this town was not a staging ground for a army, stands full of food that had been left out to rot by these barbarians, the closest thing to a weapon that her eyes could see were farming tools, and these houses were not suitably equipped to provide protection against anything worst then a cold winter's breeze.

"Indeed, a blind fool could see how this town can be a military base." Apple's tone was understanding, her face was not. Her face was tired and losing patience, if this interrogation did not end soon it would turn into a execution. "So then _fool_ , tell me what you did with these 'Scar Backs' or I shall have no other choice, but to let my associate here eat you!"

* * *

Later the members of the rest of the party returned from chasing shadows in the woods. They had already fought against the majority of these soldiers, and for their troubles came back wounded but alive.

"So as I understand it." Professor Charming stated rubbing the sides of his temples. "After patching up Apple White, the young Princess of the White Family, _the_ ruling family of the United Fairy Tale Kingdoms, who also has a concussion, you neglected to take her back to the school and choose to allow her to stay in a war zone with a temperamental fire breathing monster and a army of witch hunting religious fanatics running around. Why?"

"You were the one who told me to not ignore a potential asset when it is dropped in my lap." Dexter stated walking out behind the shop where he showed his father the very strange sight.

"Who's a good girl!? Who's a good Girl!?" Nevermore on her back getting her belly and chin scratched like a big puppy by Apple, sparks of white magic from between Apple's hands and that of the dragon's, perhaps a side effect of Apple's natural affinity for animals, even though she didn't notice.

"The Dragon likes her?" Professor Charming asked looking at the sight with his face scrunched in confusion.

"White Family genes." Dexter stated putting his glasses up. "The dragon doesn't want to leave here, I've already tried to render her unconscious but it seems that she has a secondary set of see through eye lids. All natural glasses against which my 'swooning vision' as my classmates have called it useless, now that the dragon knows to defend herself from it. Apple isn't interested in leaving either, and the dragon is quick to protect her from any perceived danger. Coupled with that, we are already short on man power with our wounded having to go back to the school. In short, we can get on the Carriage, or we can get run over."

"Hmm..." Professor Charming pondered the logic in Dexter's arguments for a while, his son made valuable points, and he looked forward to the sight one day of Daring as the charismatic leader of the armies of the White kingdom, and Dexter equal parts brains with his great intellect, and brawny beast once his story was completed. "Very well. I concede your point, for now. But not one word of this to your mother, or the teaching staff at the school, or Apple's parents if they ask. Am I understood?" Professor Charming asked in a serious tone of voice.

"Understood father." Dexter pulled out his mirror pad as he began looking through his notes from their interrogation. "We were able to extract information from the individual Apple captured, there appears to be a hanging being held by these, 'Order of the Eternal flame' people in the next village over, executing these 'Scar Back' people."

"Sounds like a religious order, what can you tell me about this cult the Evil Queen joined?" Professor Charming asked scratching his chin as he pondered in thought.

"Quite the opposite actually. It would seem that the Scar Backs is a established religious order dating back to before the Story Book of Legends, whereas the Order of the Eternal Flame is only a couple decades old." Dexter continued to go through his notes as he brought up information on the two groups. "As I Understand it, the Scar Back's originally started out as a off shoot of Druid's, individuals who worshiped nature, but in order to supplement their income they learned the ways of the Wiccan, mages who specialized in healing magic, then they met the rest of the world, full of individuals who convinced themselves that the unknown was something to be feared, so they had to learn how to defend themselves, and they took what they knew and combined that with the way of the Warlock. The end result is what we know as Scar Backs." Dexter continued to scroll down his Mirror pad, not even realizing when Apple and Nevermore stopped their revelry to sneak up on them. "In more recent history, a rather notable member of the group was one Morgan Queen, joining directly out of high school."

"You're... you're talking about the Evil Queen... Raven's mother aren't you?" Professor Charming asked looking concerned.

"What information about what she did during that time is not available, the Scar Backs considered her one of it's own, and they protected her. But before that she had made enemies. To make a long and complex story short, Riordan is rich in resources, and the neighboring human kingdoms were strip mining their lands to fuel their war machines, if they wanted to take over, they had to take the head of it's young ruler. So she was demonized, a group of holy knights founded on the belief that things that should not belong in this world should be purged, with fire." Dexter stated a hint of disgust on his cool features.

As Dexter explained, Apple's fists were clenching tight, how long did Raven have to suffer through this? The greedy who demonized Raven's family by calling them 'The Royal Family of Evil' the source of everything bad in the world.

"They must have had a field day when The Evil Queen attacked Wonderland." The Heroic's professor stated leaning his chin on his fist.

"On the contrary, they all but vanished, it seems that they're fine with attacking people who can't defend themselves, but when faced with a real challenge they show their real colors." A ghost of a smile appeared on Dexter's face as he adjusted his glasses. "Yellow is much less flattering then red. Unfortunately Red is all they've seen this past week, Raven's injuries seem to have invigorated them."

"Then all we need to do is show them something to be afraid of. Like say for example..." The Professor gestured behind Dexter, where a Dragon had been playing with Apple. "A dragon... Speaking of which where did little Apple get herself off to?" While the Professor and his son looked befuddled they heard the familiar clopping along the ground of armor clad horses approaching the town.

* * *

Apple was flying over a forest, she had already tracked down the village where the hangings were to take place, and she would not stand by and watch as Raven's people were bullied by these people. That said one princess and one dragon did not a army make, therefore she needed a distraction, she'd summon the wood land creatures of the forest she was flying over and send them into the town to create a distraction.

"RRRAAAWWWWRRR!" Letting out a ear piercing roar like that, Apple could hear the sounds of the creatures of the forest following her, but these were not the usual small birds, cute squirrels and timid deer that she was use to. Looking down Apple saw several of the trees appear to get up and follow her, looking up Apple saw giant birds with feathers that more closely resembled great seven foot long great swords. "Okay..." As a well know animal lover, Apple liked to thing that she was well versed in all things animal, but these creatures eluded her memory. "This is new."

Arriving in the town many a villager was surprised to see several giant gorillas with ten foot long twelve pointed antlers and three eyes wandered out of the woods, together with the giant metal birds that Apple saw circling around the town and huge hundred foot long snakes weaving through the town. Apple passed over the town and with a bolt of fire from Nevermore destroyed the scaffolding where several people dressed in red and black monk robes were about to be hung from ropes.

"That was a warning shot!" Apple stated as Nevermore perched on top of one of the antlers of the dear gorilla's. "We want the Scar Backs, and the walking tin cans that took them." Wisely the villagers choose to return to their homes. The knights on the other hand stepped out forming a defensive perimeter around what was left of the scaffolding. "I would prefer it with we could end this without bloodshed, to see you pay for your crimes and for the monks to return to their good..."

"END THE INFIDEL! SHOW THE WITCH THAT WE WILL NEVER BOW TO HER KIND!" While shouting that the apparent leader of the knights grabbed one of the Scar Backs and ran off through the woods.

"So much for that." Apple sighed before turning her attention to her makeshift perch. "Sorry for dropping this on you, but can you avoid hurting the other monks or the people not in the armor?" The antlered perch nodding his head in the affirmative, before Nevermore still carrying Apple jumped off. They flew over the forests for a short distance before spotting the pair dashing through the woods. The Monk tripped as she was being dragged along by the knight, something big and hairy choose that moment to slam her paw into the knight hard enough that the entire right side of his body was shattered. "Ramona?" Apple asked sizing up what could only be summarized as a Big Bad Wolf. "Is that you?"

"Looks like we finally caught up." Turning around Apple saw Dexter and Professor Charming entering the clearing.

"Before you say anything, they literally had the nooses around their necks, if we didn't get there when we did the Scar Backs would be dead right now." Apple stated holding up her hands defensively.

"It sounds like this situation has already been settled." Looking past her classmate, Apple saw the approach of a tall man dressed in dark black armor, the helmet having a pair of horns in a upward curve and various symbols resembling magic runes were carved into the armor. "Guess that means I got all dressed up for nothing. Are you okay?"

"I will be." The Monk girl got up aided by the knight in armor, her hood falling down revealing a familiar looking pale face with red eyes behind glasses and bright red hair. "Mira Shards at your service you Majesty." The monk girl stated giving a curtsy.

"Did you get my message?" The Knight asked his helmeted head turning to face the girl.

"We did, but unfortunately the item that you need was taken from us by the Order of the Eternal Flame." Mira explained pulling her hood back up.

"Then once we make sure that the village is okay we will storm their base of operations." Following the Knight's instructions Apple led the group back to the village, only it was much different then it was before, the knights that had stood up to the beasts Apple summoned were now cowering in a corner of the village, and the beasts seemed to be deliberately avoiding the town all of a sudden. Most strange of all was the crowd that had formed around someone fussing here and there over them, making apologies to someone they kept calling 'The Darklord.'

"Really guys it's okay..." A familiar but weak and raspy sounding voice insisted.

"It can't be." Apple stated straining to hear, knowing full well that this person should not logically be here.

"Of course it can, my daughter has never allowed a threat to her life of this level slow her down." The Knight stated in a annoyed tone of voice.

Upon hearing his voice most of the Villagers parted, bar the Scar Backs currently attending to the young witch in middle of the crowd.

"Apple?" Then Raven's attention turned to the man in the armor. "Dad?"

* * *

 **Review Section** :

Guests: What I will say is that the Evil Queen for all of her madness does love her daughter very much, a fact I think is made evident by the curse she placed on her that spews out carnivorous fire breathing plants whenever she starts to bleed, rather effective defensive mechanism don't you think? As for escaping and what she'll do when she does... wait and see. As you might be able to tell, Apple doesn't science her way through, so much as she uses the old white family genes to plow her way through. Well, before Raven's origin wasn't so much broken as it was cracked, but so long as I have the chance I might as well explain. Simply put, the origin is a container of magical power, without it the magic simply leaks out uncontrollably, now for most spell casters this wouldn't be a issue, but for someone as insanely powerful as Raven, magic would start to spill out in toxic amounts wreaking havoc upon her body.


	11. Chapter 11

**Author's Note** : Wow. Maybe I should just come out and ask for Reviews more often... In any case our new stretch goal is officially four reviews to one chapter. Read, Review Favorite and-wait what are you do...

 **Maddie's Note** : Since the Writer has not been able to come up with a good way to pop the bubbly for this occasion I decided that I would step in and lend him a hand every once in a while.

 **Amended Author's Note** : Second Chapter on my hit list crossed off. Now on to the next.

* * *

Chapter 11: What do you mean you're the Dark Lord?

Apple just stared, her mouth open and gaping, she literally had no words here. On the one hand her close friend Raven appeared to be okay, what with her standing, miles away from the school mind you, but on the other she was anything but. Ignoring the fact that there was a leg shaped tree digging into Raven's actual upper leg with those snap dragon vines wrapped around it, or how much paler than usual Raven looked while holding onto the staff with blood bags hanging onto it with tubes leading into her body, or how she needed to lean on Nevermore for support, or how her soul, her _godmother be blessed soul_ was in a jar that she was _carrying_ around with her or... or...

"Apple!" Raven smacked the side of Apple's cheek, the soreness that the princess felt implying that it wasn't for the first time either. "Are you okay?"

Apple started twitching, her face slowly warping in anger, then she snapped!

"WHO IN SWEET FAIRY GODMOTHER'S NAME ARE YOU TALKING TO LITTLE MISS RAVEN I-HAVE-TO-CARRY-MY-SOUL-AROUND-IN-A-JAR QUEEN!?" Apple didn't know how she summoned the will power not to leap over and strangle the witch, had she her full faculties she might have suspected the hairy arms hoisting her from behind as the chief cause. "I'M NOT THE ONE WHO SHOULD BE IN A HOSPITAL BED BECAUSE A EIGHTH OF THEIR BODY PARTS ARE GONE!"

Yeah she was mad.

"Apple, I can explain." Raven said in a calming tone of voice.

"Yes Raven, please explain." The leader of the army, Raven's father, walked up behind Apple with his arms crossed and glared at his daughter. "We are all eager to hear what was so important that it warranted you risking further loss of limb to come here and get it."

Evidently disappointment was his chief weapon of the day, and it was sharper than any blade.

"Perhaps I should be the one to explain that." Thief hand stated, half a apple in hand. "The decision was made to move young Miss Queen closer to the required organs." The doctor paused by taking a bite out of her apple, perhaps thinking on how to word the next part of the sentence properly. "It's what we would have done in the first place had the Phylactery we required not been the size of Mrs. Yaga's shack." The doctor took another bite out of her apple.

"Then when I woke up and they explained this to me I scribbled down a note for a compression spell I learned from my mo-family and Faybelle was able to enchant this into something that could hold my soul." Raven explained gesturing to the jar.

"Since I see that you've already come into contact with the local monk's would you kindly aide us in surgery by giving us the new origin?" To the Doctor's question, Mira gave a unamused look and pointed at the nearby castle. "That's where the origins are being kept isn't it?"

"Yes."

"We just walked into a war zone didn't we?"

"Correct."

"And you knew about this all along didn't you?"

"Yes." Raven shrunk a little bit under the doctor's glare, but she did have a knowing smile on her features. "But that's why we brought them along."

Then the ground started shaking.

* * *

"Hmm? Looks like Raven has a whole textbook of recklessly charging into these fun little situations while missing her bits and bobs." Maddie commented sipping her tea after observing the interaction neutrally. "Course it's nothing compared to what she did in Neverland, ask anyone."

* * *

The lord of the Castle, a weathered old man in full regal attire, had just received a report about the efforts to exterminate the Scar Back's, it would seem that yet another party had chosen to interfere with his business.

"Damn Witches." To his knowledge neither the Scarbacks or the Evil Queen's army had anyone who specialized in making creatures that normally found humans very appetizing into obedient pets. If they had they surely would have sent them after him already, and that would have completely kibosh his plans to mine the area for his army instead of the mere temporary delay that he was now experiencing. "Burn all of them, leave not a single one of them alive!"

"And the Village?" The leader of the Order of the Eternal Flame asked looking at the lord questioningly.

"Ashes! I have no use for subjects that harbors my enemies!" As the knights began scrambling to heed the lord's orders, they suddenly felt the ground shake.

Looking out of his balcony window, the king gasped as he looked into the sky as he saw a pitch black dragon dropping barrels out of the sky that exploded when they hit the ground, Sparrow Hood was on the beast's back harpooning the knights under his employ with bolts. Bricks flew off of the front gate as a giant stone was hurled from the other side, smashing clean through and making it's way all the way over to the Lord's side, some kind of large siege engine, a catapult he assumed, but if that was the case then it was flammable.

"Archers! Quit Lollygagging! Set them aflame!" The Lord ordered waving his hand about like it would make his men move faster. As soon as the archers had their target in sight the ones on the left were immediately blown off by hurricane force winds, the ones on the right snatched off the wall by vines. "Who would da..."

One final smash signaled the collapse of the main gate, followed by a giant, dressed in cotton armor and brandishing a pair of very large large spiked metal boots, and a sling that had a boulder the size of a barrel loaded in it. What could only be summarized as a Big Bad Wolf climbed on top of the left wall, snarling at the soldiers as they scrambled in panic on the ground, on the right wall a certain fairy carrying a weapon that was equal parts spell casting scepter and halberd was lifted over the wall with vines. Most fearsome of all, a man in black demon like armor stepped forth between the legs of the giant carrying a sword as tall and thick as he.

"I am Corvo The Black!" The warrior yelled slamming his weapon tip first into the ground. "Chief Knight of the family of the Dark Lord Morganna Demon-Eye! And you coward!" The Knight snapped accusingly pointing a armored finger at the lord of the Castle. "You have something that she wants! Your head!" The Knight pulled his sword out of the ground before flipping it around and pointing it accusingly towards the man of the castle who now looked thoroughly terrified and was already running back inside. "ATTAAAACK!"

The soldiers charged through the gate, Tiny making a effort not to step on any of them as he stumbled out of his way.

"So Raven's pet monster, a Gigans Wolf, a walking siege engine, and The Evil fairy storms into these people's castle and he doesn't bat a eye, but this Corvo fellow makes a little speech and sends him off running!?" Faybelle asked sounding outraged a nervous twitch in her eyes that made Tiny want to go far in the other direction. "Who the hell is this guy!?"

"I don't know but..." Puny little splinters bounced off of the magic barrier written into Tiny's armor as he looked down and saw archer's shooting at him. "Maybe you should consider putting the fear of Fairies into these people?"

"An hexcellent idea!" Saying that, Faybelle blasted at the knights using fire magic. The magic went about like a surgeons knife, welding chunks of armor together, melting weapons down to the point of uselessness, these people weren't going anywhere any time soon.

"Roasted beef!" Ramona jumped off of the wall and began walking through the knights, batting away enemy combatants as she went. "Just the way I like em!" Ramona licked her lips as she eagerly sized the men up and down. "My favorite!" Ramona delighted in the terrified screams of her would be prey, made others freeze up and made smacking them aside like a cat with a rat so much easier without them waving around their sharp little weapons.

"All yours Ramona! I have go find a Lord and teach him some proper manners before Raven's daddy kills him!" Faybelle snapped flying over the battle field and into the main castle.

Faybelle had to admit, the man worked fast. After being snatched up from the ground and dropped on the Balcony by Nevermore, Corvo appeared to have decapitated three men, cut one from his eyes to his balls, and punched a man so hard that his corpse was still hanging from where his head went into the wall, and on top of all of that he had already chased down the lord of the castle.

"You bastard! My bloodline has ruled these lands for the past three generations you feeble peasant! You can't..."

"Have you seen your brothel lately? Your bloodline is doing just fine!"

That was the last thing he said before Corvo went through the process of using a knife to chop his head off.

"Is everyone better at this then me?" Faybelle snapped a twitch in her eye that would make a lesser man run away in fear.

"Raven's fairy friend? Good. Teleport us to the courtyard I have an announcement to make." Corvo stated standing next to Faybelle, severed head of the Lord of the castle in hand.

"Exxcuuse me!" Faybelle snapped looking thoroughly outraged. "I am Princess Faybelle of the Royal Fairy Kingdom of Never Land and I will not by ordered about by some hu..." Corvo turned to face Faybelle, eyes slit like something that was most certainly not human glaring at her like she had compared him to a pile of troll dung. "Yes-sir." A flash of light from Faybelle engulfed the two and spat them out in the courtyard.

"Wrap this mess up I have an announcement to make." Corvo stated eyeing his men.

Faybelle looked around at the courtyard, and was more than a little bit surprised. Most of the enemy knights were still alive yet on their knees with their hands above their heads.

"They're still alive?" Faybelle questioned looking mighty confused.

"But of course, as a vital part of my plan." Corvo stated walking up to the head knight and dropping the severed head of the lord of the lands in front of him. "Your employer is dead, take your men and inform your superiors that they are not welcomed in the lands belonging to the Queen Family, and if they do not wish to be exterminated like the Rakash they are then they should flee as quickly as they can." Corvo stated dropping a rolled and sealed section of parchment at the face of a man lying in the dirt. "Go." The thoroughly terrified men still hadn't gotten the message yet, perhaps too stunned or scared stiff. "Oh for the love of..." Corvo let out a loud whistle and Nevermore fired a bolt of fire down to the ground spooking off the soldiers.

Following that Tiny picked up the crate with the Scarback's stuff in it and along with the others walked back to the Village.

* * *

"Oh Raven's family has a history of Butt-booters!" Maddie stated leaning on a flamingo that it should be noted was upside down with it's beak in the dirt. "I didn't actually know about Blackie, probably spends all of his time out conquering the world or something."

* * *

"AND ANOTHER THING! WHAT'S THIS I HEAR ABOUT EVERYONE CALLING YOU THE DARK LORD!?" Apple, in place of Ramona who was holding her back before, had instead been sat down in a chair and tied up so that she could scream at Raven without doing her any bodily harm, a slightly terrified group of Ever After High Heroes not too far away. "SO YOU'RE WILLING TO RUN AROUND HERE ACTING LIKE SOME TERROR BUT YOU REFUSE TO TAKE PART IN A FAIRY TALE!?"

"How long has she been like that?" Corvo asked looking at Apple mixed tones of confusion and awe in his voice.

"Hours." An exasperated Mira stated letting out a sigh.

"Impressive. Miss White." Corvo stated in a tone of voice that made Faybelle think the demonic man who cowed a small army into submission was some kind of illusion. "I understand that you probably have a few more things you'd like to say to my daughter but she really should be going into surgery right now."

As Corvo said that Thief hand wheeled Raven away, Ramona, whom it should be noted was naked having not put any clothes on since she literally grew out of them going full big bad and not having put any back on, took a crowbar to the crate and allowed Mira to pluck out a red glass bauble before handing it over to Thief hand.

"Allow me to deal with this one sir." Faybelle stated a little too eager look on her eyes. "I've got a talent for this." Faybelle took the chair Raven was occupying across from Apple. "So little princess? I take it you have some questions about our young Dark Lord?" Faybelle asked smirking at Apple.

"Why does everyone here keep calling her that!?" Apple snapped indignantly rocking the chair back and forth. "And why am I tied up?"

"The reason why Raven is being called the Dark Lord, is because it's so much better then being called the Evil Queen." Faybelle stated a gleeful smile on her features.

"How is that any better? At least the Queen family has repu..."

"No Apple." Faybelle's voice was not compromising on this. "They do not. Raven's Mother burned their family name into a pile of ashes, which was then generously sprinkled onto a pile of dragon dung by gentlemen like this!" Faybelle dropped the severed head of the man that Corvo had killed in front of Apple.

"This man...?"

"Barely waited five minuets after the exaggerated rumors of Raven's demise reached his ears before sending out a band of religious psychopaths for hire to start massacring her people." Faybelle drawled on dryly, though she did get some amusement out of the scowl that creased Apple's features. "Besides, the current Evil Queen was never known as the Evil Queen in this country, she was known as The Dark Lord. Or The Dark Lord Morganna Demon-Eye if we're going with her full title. Seven years after she wrecked the family name and these people still worship the ground that she walked on, asked anyone!" Faybelle said gesturing to the villagers who were going about their business now that Raven had gone off for her surgery.

"That... doesn't make sense." Apple commented recalling how the Evil Queen was so vilified in Ever After that Raven couldn't even walk the halls without someone screaming bloody murder. "To you the Evil Queen is the mad woman that tried to kill everyone! Around these parts though the Dark Lord's the woman who revitalized a land that was poisoned by war and generations of people who did not care about those under their care enough to keep their lands alive!" Faybelle stated gesturing to the village with her arms wide.

"Say what?" A nervous tic took Apple's eye again as she looked just about ready to snap again.

"Oh don't be so surprised at the obvious little princess, it's really not becoming." Faybelle stated in a displeased tone of voice. "You humans rarely think long term, too busy dying young either from over indulgence of things that they shouldn't or chopping one another's heads off. For people like me, or Raven though, living for hundreds of years at a time means that we have to come up with long term goals if we don't want to spend our considerable life span in the dirt. And that is just what the ones like this piece of filth have to deal with." Faybelle explained as she once more gestured to the severed head on the ground. "For people like Raven and I who actually gives a honest to goodness damn about their people we also have the responsibility of raising competent people to do our jobs when we are no longer able to do them ourselves, while dealing with all the people who are like this ganging up on us!"

"Oh my I... I didn't know..." Apple stated looking horrified.

"Nor are you suppose to. You are suppose to play the role of the victim of the monstrous Queen of Evil so that you stupid humans are cowed into leaving, us, alone and in exchange you get live blissfully ignorant to the rest of the world burning down around you!" Faybelle snapped in a tone of voice that had disgust and spite mixed in.

"But that doesn't make any sense... Raven's mother... and her grandmother..." By now Ramona had used her claws to cut Apple free, allowing the princess to lean forward, gasping in despair.

"Welcome to the twenty first century little princess. People aren't scared of cartoonish villains that poison people with sleeping potions or Big Bad monsters that can't even properly kill their victims even when they eat them alive." Faybelle commented prompting Ramona to growl in dissatisfaction. "And Raven is the worst off of all of us. Because, and this is just me assuming here, because she's the daughter of the woman who tried and failed to remind the world what _real_ monsters look like! And look at how that turned out? You all now get to make an example out of her about not trying to ruin the status quo!" Faybelle stated gesturing to the village around them.

"What... what are you saying?" Apple asked looking horrified at Faybelle.

"We're going to war princess! Raven is leading one army and you're gonna be the trophy wife of the one leading the one standing in front of her, that's what I'm saying!" Faybelle stated something of mad look of glee on her features as she twirled on the spot.

"But... the book... it's..." Apple desperately tried to compute something that could possibly stop this from happening.

"It's a ten inch thick a chunk of leather and paper. At the most it could stop a arrow if you hold it up in front of your face. Thanks to our _beloved_ Headmaster's thrice damned father who thought that it wasn't appropriate for good little maidens and heroes to come to the aide of our 'evil' countries that magic peace treaty isn't nearly so binding as it use to be especially when it concerns the Queen family and their lands." Faybelle stated smirking in amusement at the way that Apple's features froze up in horror.

"But... even without the contract... if anyone ever..." Apple's brain looked like it was in the process of shutting down.

"That's sickeningly naively sweet of you Apple dear, but allow me to share with you a little thing called reality." Faybelle stated in a tone one would use to address a young child, before going all business. "People don't march their armies over the border proudly announcing who they are or their intentions and waving their flags around anymore." Faybelle stated in a serious, almost wise sounding tone. "They send in small groups, to sneak into the enemy fortress, and they murder the people in charge in their sleep. With the contract a over whelming feeling of pain would attack you if one of the other kingdoms was in danger, including the 'villain' ones. Now, nadda, nothing, what with the glamour charms people are coming up with these days it's possible to go years without anyone ever realizing what happened."

"But... but... the Headmaster... he could..."

"For Raven's sake you better sincerely hope that is not true, because if it was then that means that the Headmaster could have fixed this mess _years_ ago, and has chosen not to!" At this, Apple fainted. Not a maidenly faint either, she started hyperventilating, gasping for precious little Oxygen that her lungs felt like sucking in before emptying her stomach contents and falling over in a pool of her own bile. "My work here, is officially done!" Faybelle stated getting up, bowing theatrically, complete with applause from Ramona, before walking off to get some dinner.

* * *

"Oh intense!" Maddie commented poking Apple's unconscious form with her flamingo shaped club. "I sure hope that this doesn't become a recurring plot point. Raven's family deserves a bit of peace and quiet after all. In any case see you all at the four to one special!"

* * *

 **Review Section** :

Chicka-flick: Well I don't know what there's to be confused about, if you specified I could explain. But thank you anyway.

Guests: Well, we have a girl who can control animals wandering into the place known as the country of monsters, what do yah think would happen. Also, who is not A? Yah the Good King is pretty much an invitation to make a OC at this point in time. No the monk is Mira. The Knight is Raven's Dad.

Zwei Els: Tell me about it. I wouldn't mind making Apple as she was a antagonist turned protoganist, but for a main character she's kind of unlikable in my opinion. And I do like a version of her that is driven by logic like she was meant to be.


	12. Chapter 12

**Author's Note** : Ah reviews, Sweet, Sweet three reviews per chapter, how I love you. Read, Review, Favorite, and Enjoy!

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Chapter 12: Would You Like To Give a Demonstration Dark Lord?

The Heroics class marched through the mirror back into Ever After High, looking right proud of themselves for a bunch of people who did next to nothing during the entire trip, they were forming a protective barrier in front of Raven and Apple who were riding on Nevermore and with the rear being brought up by Faybelle, Ramona, Mira, Thief Hand and a shrunken Tiny. Apple wasn't talking, she was too shaken, hugging Raven from behind protectively like she would disappear if she let go. The Headmaster was waiting for them, thoroughly unamused. He distinctly recalled authorizing far fewer people than this little field trip.

"Everyone, shower up and rest. Your classes and punishments are waiting for you tomorrow." It was now that the Headmaster realized that the head count of the people coming in didn't line up with the head count of people who had left. "I don't believe we've been introduced miss...?"

"Mira Shards at your service." Mira stated making a curtsy to the headmaster. "I have my transfer papers in order." With a snap of her fingers Mira made the necessary paper work appear from thin air. "Miss Queen's father believes that sending someone of one of our homeland's Warlock orders to serve as a guard to Miss Queen is a appropriate course of action."

Picking up the papers the Headmaster began examining the papers as he reviewed the situation. Firstly Mira's point made sense, and given the choice of a angry dragon or one more witch in his school he preferred the later. Secondly sending extra protection for Miss Queen was the most logical course of action, given the recent attempt on her life. With those matters resolved Milton examined the paperwork, apparently Mira was raised in a orphanage ran by a order of Druids called Scar-Backs, he'd look them up later, which was owned largely by one of the lesser Warlock families of Riordan.

"My educational level up to a senior high school is completely up to snuff if that's what you're concerned about." Mira stated cocking a suspicious brow.

"I wasn't, the Druids of Riordan are very well respected educators." Ms. Trollsworth opened a folder and allowed the Headmaster to place the contents of Mira's paperwork inside. "Though if you do insist on staying here then I do recommend dressing for a warmer climate."

Indeed Riordan was known for being unseasonably cold, dressing in something a touch lighter was the logical course of action. Looking at Raven a brief moment a wooden ring around Mira's finger turned into a magical staff. Tapping that staff on the ground Mira's clothes disappeared in a poof of Red smoke and was reformed into a identical outfit to that of Raven's, except for the fact that Mira preferred red over purple.

"Acceptable?" Mira questioned cocking a brow at the headmaster.

"Acceptable. Now, showers, rest, and that monster sleeps in the stables tonight." Milton stated indicating Nevermore who let out a dissatisfied growl.

The next day Raven was limping through the halls aided by a wooden cane, being trailed behind by Apple and supported by Nevermore to whom it should be noted had a harness with a sign on it that clearly read 'Service Animal.'

"According to this, Magicology is here." Raven stated stopping in front one of the classrooms in the hall.

"Then this is where we part ways." Apple took a trolly that was being hauled by Nevermore and went her own way, giving the dragon a kiss on her forehead before she left. "Good luck with class Raven!" Apple left waving her hand through the air.

"Thanks." Raven stated as she waved Apple off. "I'm gonna need it." Raven entered the classroom where in she saw that everyone else was already there, including a good many people that she did not think would be here.

"Good Morning class, I am Mrs. Baba Yaga." The old witch in question stated writing her name across the board. "And in case this wasn't obvious, I am your teacher." Raven sneaked into the back of the class, taking a seat next to Mira on a flying carpet. Raven opened her text book while Baba talked and began reading through it. "Many of you, are already familiar with the inner workings of Magic, you've come from established magical families, you've been raised with magic, many of you have probably received basic to advanced training." A murmur of agreement ran through the majority of the students, particularly those that Raven knows come from Riordan and Neverland. "Some of you however are new to this, being the first individuals that the gift of magical power has appeared in your respective families." Several Students began awkwardly scratching the backs of their heads, their confusion over being assigned to the class having just cleared up, others only becoming more confused. "I know that it might seem like a odd thing to say, but many of you do have magical talents. Though you might have brushed it off as otherwise explainable phenomena, or as a part of your stories, but the seed of magical power is there. And under my tutelage you will learn how to utilize it." It was at that point in time that Baba noticed Raven having finished skimming through the Text Book before looking at her bored. "As many of you may have noticed, Ever After High is not a dedicated magical school. Meaning that in what low few classes I do teach, most of which the lot of you don't even attend, I have to cram not only the intermediary level of magic that most of you will be taking, but also the basic and advanced courses that many of you will be taking as well. As it so happens I have a solution to this little dilemma." At this Baba suddenly split in two, much to the open gasps of almost the entire class.

"Basic self duplication spell and they're all shocked?" Raven commented cocking a brow at the rest of the class.

"I'll never understand human kingdoms." Mira commented shaking her head. "Using my duplicates, I will be able to give each of you personalized tailor made instruction suited to your specific educational needs and learning." The two Baba's merged back together before they continued. "But before that I need to know what I'm dealing with, Miss Queen." Raven visibly stiffened up, realizing that she should have paid more attention to Baba and her speech. "M-Me?" Coming to Ever After High Raven had put a self imposed policy in place never to cast magic in front of her classmates, less the bubble gum gargoyle incident repeated itself.

"Would you kindly go first miss Queen?" Not waiting for a answer, the carpet that Raven was sitting on floated over and landed in front of the class, Nevermore creating a right proper ruckus as she stormed through the crowd to get to Raven because after that fright the other night she wasn't going to let her out of her sight. "Please explain to the class the concept of Knacks, and a demonstration would be appreciated as well." ( _10%_ )

Oh Raven knew where this was going already.

"Well, a Knack is a certain magical affinity that a person has to something. My knack is mirrors." Raven explained, taking her own mirror phone out and making it float in the air. "I can alter their shape." The mirror phone did a good impression of puddy as it stretched, squished, and altered it's shape before suddenly springing back to normal, perfectly intact. "Or I can add enchantments." The Mirror phone burst into a ball of flame in Raven's hand. "And I can use them as a doorway, though most of the mirrors across the lands have been enchanted so that lets people do that anyway." Raven explained as she pulled a long metal spear out of her mirror. "And that's all there is to it." Several People in the class started clapping their hands, the Riordans doing it with a touch more enthusiasm then what was strictly necessary.

"Thank you Raven." But alas Mrs. Baba wasn't going to let her off that easily. "Now would you please like to explain to the class the concept of a removed knack?"

And here we go.

"A removed knack is taking your knack and applying it differently, creating a entirely different power with it. In my case it's one of the more... flexible ones." First Raven created a swirl of water from thin air, and puppet around the metal spear she took out of her phone earlier. "My knack affects reflective surfaces, such as water and metal." Joining the two items in the air a chunk of marble was ripped out of the floor. "And mirrors being made out of things usually taken out of the ground, I can manipulate that too." Joining the three already in the air was a ball of light. "And reflective surfaces tend to produce light." Suddenly the items Raven had floating around the room changed form. The small boulder was taken over by green vegetation, the water turned into a ball of ice, the light shifted into a illusionary duplicated of Raven, and the spear melted into a ball of molten metal. "Light produces heat and fire, and can be used to create illusions. Water can be frozen or compressed to make ice. Earth can be used to create vegetation. Etc." Now all the items Raven had floating around her disappeared, turning the distracted students, most of whom had their mouths hanging open, attention back to Raven. ( _5%_ )

"Thank you Raven you may return to your carpet now." Raven got back onto the carpet and returned to her position, though for some reason she was now floating at the front of the class instead of at the back like she had intended. "That is how things are going to work in this class, we will endeavor to understand how each of your unique abilities will work, and using that understanding we will draw a road map to teach each of you as many different kinds of magics as we can, in a effort to prepare you for your futures. Now, have we any volunteers?" Baba spotted a young lady with white black and lavender hair trying to burn a hole in the back of Raven's head, mildly miffed about being moved from the front of the class. "Duchess Swan." Looking surprised the student in question shot Baba a surprised looking before pointing at herself questioningly. "Perhaps you'd like to demonstrate your knack to the class?"

"The only thing I can do is the old family curse, turning into a swan." Duchess stated dismissively, prompting Raven to shoot her a confused look, like the idea of the Swan Princess turning into a swan was new all of a sudden.

"Then just do that." The magic carpet with Duchess sitting on it flew over Raven's head and landed in front of the class, Baba wasn't giving her much of a choice. So with a sigh Duchess inhaled and in moments was replaced by the form of a swan. Upon seeing the unimpressed stares of her classmates Duchess let out a indignant honk before she turned back into human form. "Excuuuse me for not being able to do everything under the sun like _some_ people I can name!"

( _10_ _%_ )

Duchess was flown back to her spot in the middle of the class, as her other classmates went up, which Raven noted with increasing horror were fairy tale characters who should not have magic, and gave a demonstration of whatever abilities that they had.

* * *

Milton was sitting in his office, finishing going through paper work for the various incoming members of the royal families, now he had a entirely new problem to deal with but at least he had a breather to focus on it for a minuet. Then he nearly slipped off of the side of his chair when he heard the familiar sound of a bugle call ring in his ears.

"I was having such a good day too." Milton grumbled before he went outside to go and deal with the most high maintenance woman in all of Ever After.

* * *

After Mrs. Yaga's class went out Raven was allowed a brief breather to go elsewhere in the school, Raven's half eaten sandwich was sitting on a trey beside her as she was examining various books from the 'History of Evil Curses' course.

"Hey Raven!" Apple it seems had already found Raven, having not seen her in the castleteria she decided to ask around and eventually came here. "What are you doing?" Apple's face cringed as a unpleasant thought occurred to her. "Please don't tell me that professor Yaga is making you do homework on your first day?"

"Nothing so simple I'm afraid Apple." Raven stated taking a bite out of her sandwich.

"What's the matter _witch!_ " Apple turned her attention to the new individual to join the conversation. "It's not enough to show off in class today, you gotta polish your over achiever status?" Duchess snapped spitting the name of Raven's people like it was curse.

( _15%_ )

"What's your problem now Duchess?" Apple snapped back at the feathery fairy tale character. Oh these two had a long history together, ever since Daring's and Apple's engagement had been announced the bird themed noble has had it out for Apple.

"Oh nothing, just little Miss witch trying to prove to all of us how much better she is then the rest of us! Tell me something Raven, blow anything up lately?" Duchess asked smug look on her face.

A not too subtle growl echoed through out the room from above. Point of interest it seems that Nevermore wasn't letting Raven out of her sight, but at the same time she was trying to stay out of view of the librarians, so instead she had taken to hiding in places people don't normally look, which in this case was the rafters.

"Don't mind her she hasn't had lunch yet." At this Raven pulled out a whole raw turkey from her mirror phone and magically tossed it into the air from which Nevermore snapped down on it and started devouring it whole, bones and all. "She eats three of those every day, five when she gets bigger." Not that Duchess noticed that part, she seemed to take personal offense to it in fact, hence she spun around harrumph and left the library.

"Nicely done Raven." Apple stated patting Raven on her back. "We might make a 'Evil Queen' out of you yet."

( _20%_ )

"Apple, didn't I explicitly say that I have no intention of becoming the Evil Queen!?" Raven asked a annoyed twitch in her eye.

"I know, you gave a big speech about it, just as I know that you have your reasons for not wanting the title, and that you already seem to be 'The Dark Lord' to your people as well, whatever that's about. But having reasons means that you also have points that can be negotiated upon." Oh Raven wasn't getting out of this easy. Well as long as she was going to throw her families considerable resources at the problem anyway she might as well take advantage.

"If, and only if, people stop trying to kill me, stop trying to start wars with my home land, and stop screaming in terror every time I walk by, then maybe, and I do emphasize the term maybe, I will take the title, after long and thought out deliberation on the matter to ensure that it doesn't destroy everything, and for that matter anything, that I worked to accomplish." Raven stated in a serious and uncompromising tone of voice before she returned to her reading.

"Good! Now if you excuse me I need to go and have a nice long chat with my mother." As if on cue, a bugle belted out a familiar tune as a lot of ruckus started going on outside. Looking out the window Apple was shocked at the sight of the tall woman with long black greying hair. "Mommy?"

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 **Review Section** :

Zwei Eis: There's people smart enough to figure it out, like for example being able to spot the obvious family resemblance between the two. Also there's Mrs. Trollsworth, who saw Cerise with her hood down.

Guests: Thank you for saying so. Don't worry, she's still lurking about here and there.

Wyldclaw: Thank you for saying so.

Wade: Faybelle is the best kind of friend you could ask for, the one that'll tell you when there's spinach stuck in your teeth, and various other methods of screwing up, and she does so in a manner in which even the most sheltered ignorant person on the planet *Cough* Apple *Cough**Cough* can understand it.


	13. Chapter 13

**Author's Note** : Alright, finished mourning, back to story writing, fortunately this story has both been a comfort and a distraction. So Read, Review, Favorite, and Enjoy!

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Chapter 13: Leave Everything to Me Snow White

After the rather loud announcement of the queen of Ever After arriving at the school the Various students had swarmed outside of the various buildings to see the arrival of the current Snow White. Two Dwarven butlers rolled out a red carpet from the carriage as Snow White walked behind them. Nevermore flew Apple and Raven over the crowd and touched down in front of the dwarfs, a growl from the black dragon served to make the crowd step back a fair distance.

"Mom!" Apple leaped off of the dragon in question and ran over and gave her mother a hug around her waist. "You won't believe the week we've been having! Dwarfs-attacked-Raven-and-she-lost-a-leg-she-has-spider-venom-and..."

"Appoline White! Breath!" The ruler of Ever After stated in a firm tone of voice to her daughter, who obediently inhaled a deep breath before letting it out in a low whistle. "Now listen here, the events of the past few days are precisely why I'm here, and do believe me when I say that I intend to fix this mess. So leave everything to me okay?" Apple resumed hugging her mother, though this time instead of looking panicked she was happy.

"Now then..." Snow White's eyes turned to the individuals in front of her, the black dragon and the young woman sitting on top of it. "One of Morgan's monsters. I heard I've got you to thank for helping my daughter out of a pickle earlier." Snow White reached down to pat the dragon on her head, only for the beast to snap at her.

"Nevermore! That's my mom! What's gotten in to you!?" Apple snapped giving the dragon a disciplinary tap on the nose.

"My apologies your majesty." Raven stated in a polite, but strained tone of voice. "Nevermore you see was raised to be my guardian, so she should only attack those that she see's as a threat to me." Raven briefly glanced to the butlers who had joined the queen on her little trip to the school. "Perhaps she's just a little bit rattled at what happened the other day, I mean being attacked by a group of _Dwarven_ assassins is no laughing matter. After all..." Raven narrowed her glare at the queen, fortunately Apple's attention was still on Nevermore, finger ready to smack the annoyed dragon once more. "Why would she ever interpret _you_ of all people to be a threat?"

( _70%_ )

Asking that, Raven and Nevermore turned around and started walking back to the school, Raven doing her best to hide the black smoke coming out of her sleeves.

"Apple, I'll see you in class later." Raven stated prompting Apple to nod her head before giving her mother another hug.

"If you've got time later, I got something I'd like to talk about." Apple stated giving a polite bow to her mother and Queen of her homeland.

"Of course my dear, that sounds like it would just be lovely." Snow White stated waving her daughter off as well, before she continued her red velvet march to the school. "It is not considered polite to make a ruler walk." Snow White stated to the Headmaster whom was waiting for the Monarch at the doorsteps into the school.

"Are you suggesting instead to make the man nearly twice your age with the bum knee walk all the way over to the courtyard just to greet you, only to then have to escort you all the way back here?" The Headmaster questioned cocking a suspicious brow. "I know that the doctors insist I exercise more but with the week I've been having I've been a tad bit busy."

"Oh you haven't changed at all." Snow White stated letting out a touch of laughter.

"I'll try not to be offended by that." The Headmaster stated letting out a sigh. "Might I ask what the occasion is?"

"Take me to them." The Queen stated in a serious tone of voice that was not making room for compromise.

* * *

Inside of the school's dungeons, a Mirror was taken out of a slot in the wall, one of the detention realms, tailored made for disciplining the students. Though from this one the Headmaster forcibly spilt out several Dwarfs and sprawled them all out on the ground.

"Hello honorable Dwarves." Snow White stated giving the little men a curtsy. "You most likely know me as Snow White, though I'm also known as the Queen of Ever After, the kingdom located directly on top of your own home and native land of Dwemor, and the kingdom all of are currently in. Which is the reason why I find it distressing to learn that you've apparently been trying to kill the daughter of my allied kingdom of Riordan."

"Don't make us laugh! You and the Evil Queen are enemies!" The Leader of the Dwarves snapped prompting his associates to chuckle.

"True, I and Morgan have not always gotten along." Snow White stated taking the liberty of laughing along with the Dwarves. "But Jadis, her mother, and grand mother to the young lady you tried to kill, is my god mother, and the current Queen of Riordan." That silenced the Dwarves, the Queen was no longer laughing, though she was still smiling, there was a smoldering rage burning in her eyes. "But let's ignore my relationship to my neighbors for a moment, and look at this situation politically. If I let you off easily, that would convey to any other would be child murderers that it's okay to try and kill the young people going to this school. As the majority of them are from my neighboring allied lands, not to mention one of them is my own flesh and blood daughter, I simply cannot allow this to stand. That said I'm also known for being quite the merciful soul as well, so if you tell me whose idea it was to off young Raven Queen in this manner I might have enough reason not to kill all of you right now." The dwarves chuckled again, though not as heartily as before, the idea of 'fair and merciful' Snow White having all of them executed still seemed somewhat laughable.

"It does not seem like the want to cooperate your majesty." The Female Dwarven attendant at Snow White's side mentioned in a doubting tone of voice.

"That is what I thought. Joyful..." The dwarf who was aiding Snow White stepped forward at having her name called. "Execute the prisoners."

"Excuse me!" To this statement, the Headmaster let out an indignant squawk. "This is a school! Not a executioner's ground! Where do you get off of murdering people in front of my students and staff!"

"It's been my experience that watching people hang is a excellent moral booster." Snow White stated before turning her attention back to Joyful. "I saw some strong looking tree's on the way here, a rope hung from them should be sufficient."

"I would recommend against it my liege. Pine is a deceptively weak wood, imagine the indignity if the branches snapped in the middle of the hanging? We'd have to chase them all over the forest." The dwarf butler explained snapping an imaginary stick in the air. "Might I recommend the walnut trees on the other side of the school?"

"That will do nicely." Snow White stated calmly, much to the increasing horror of the prisoners.

"Excuse me your majesty!" Snow White turned her attention to the Headmaster as if only just noticing his presence. "Perhaps I did not make myself clear earlier! You might be the Queen of Ever After but in this school I am the supreme authority and I do not intend to allow anyone to be executed on my grounds."

"Now now Headmaster, they've made it quite clear that they are far too strong willed to hand over any information about their employers." Snow White stated gesturing to the little men who weren't looking quite so strong willed as they were before. "If you aren't going to execute them, then we should torture them for information about their employers. Seeing as how my morals are far too high for that the only thing to do is execute them." The Queen of Ever After explained her body language indicating her increasing loss of Patience.

"That is not the point here!" The Headmaster snapped stomping his good foot on the ground.

"What's that? You insist on torturing them?" Snow White stated holding her hand around her ear as if to help her hear what the Headmaster was saying. "Well, as I said earlier my morals are far too high for that. However if you were to give Mr. Wolf the weekend off to spend some time with his daughter and god Daughter Raven Queen..." The Headmaster looked horrified at what he was hearing.

"Bane Bad Wolf? Are you insane!? You know how vindictive Gigan Wolves are! The last time some one made him mad spent the last week of his life bathing in his stomach acid!" The Headmaster shouted to the increasing horror of the dwarves.

"Gi-Gigan Wolf!" One of the Dwarfs asked sounding terrified.

"Sounds like a digestion problem, maybe the doctors should prescribe something." Snow White commented idly trying to keep her attention away from the dwarfs whose resolve looked like it was ready to completely shatter.

"IT WAS THE LORD OF THE LANCE LANDS!" One of the dwarfs shrieked to the heavens.

"What was that?" Snow White asked turning her head to look at the dwarfs, doing her best to keep her grin from getting too big, less it stop being intimidating.

"One of the Lords from the lands that Borders Riordan came down to Dwemor looking to recruit members from one of the criminal guilds to assassinate the young princess of Riordan, our magic resistance made us the obvious candidates!" The harried Dwarf all but shouted to the heavens.

"Lord of the Lance Lands?" Snow White asked as Joyful brought up a map showing the regions that surrounded Riordan.

"Oh it's one of the ones that hadn't given sufficient justification to be annexed yet, honestly you'd think they'd learn their lesson by now." Snow White commented shaking her head in disappointment, acts like this only served to convince her that there really was no hope for humanity at this rate. "Headmaster, please put them back into their cell until we can inform the King of Dwemor that these fools attempted to assassinate their literal meal ticket."

Riordan was the largest producer of food stuffs in the United Fairy Tale Kingdoms, the exact opposite of Dwemor in that and many other ways with their ability to feed themselves being almost completely non existent what with them living completely underground. The Dwarfs that accompanied the queen escorted their criminal brethren back into their glass cage while the Headmaster could only shake his head.

"For a 'fair maiden' you're quite the manipulative little thing aren't you?" The Headmaster asked cocking a brow suspiciously at the monarch.

"I haven't been a 'fair maiden' since you were the 'wise voice of neutrality' of this school." Snow White countered walking down the halls of the dungeon being escorted by Joyful. "We both know what kind of monster those lies bred. I've no intention of breeding another."

"Maturity looks good on you. Think Raven's gonna believe it?" The Headmaster asked in suspicious tone of voice.

"Even I could see the rage for what I did to her family roll off of her body Grimm." Snow White commented the tiniest hint of fear in her voice. "Allow me to be blunt Grimm. Your job, your only job, from today until she graduates, is to make sure Raven does not end up anything like her mother. Call it your retirement party." Snow White stated cold and uncompromising.

"I guess we'll be able to share one." Milton stated his cane tapping on the cold hard stone as he followed behind Snow White.

While the two individuals walked and talked another party, observed them through a pair of bright red eyes.

"Please... Please... Mercy!" The Evil Queen turned her attention away from the pair walking down the hallway and gave a disinterested look to the dwarfs. Her options locked away so were limited, but now that Snow White and the Headmaster knew what they needed to know she could turn her attention to the little men that had so thoroughly earned her wrath.

"Sorry, all outta mercy!" If Snow White didn't act upon this information, then she would just contact her husband and he would march every single nightmare under his command into the land of lances.

Either way their usefulness, was almost at a end, almost, she could use something to occupy her time for next little while, and death is a form of mercy in a sense, they'd certainly be begging for it after she was done with them.

* * *

With a massive, angry shriek a blast of pitch black magic echoed through the History of Evil Spells class leaving the classroom stunned and horrified at Raven's outburst, who was asked to demonstrate one of the nicer curses in her mother's arsenal.

( _0%_ )

"It's called 'the Shadow of Living Death.'" Raven explained panting having just exhausted almost all of the magic her body had to spare. "It can't kill, not directly, rather it destroys the will to live. It has been..." Raven was struggling to breath right now, the chore of draining every drop of magic from every pore of her body had took it's toll on her. "Useful over these many years past." Raven collapsed to her hands and knees panting, Mira, who had taken a bare minimum number of precautions to protect herself, rushed over to Raven's side and moved her limp form over Nevermore's back to carry her.

"Mrs. Yaga. I think that we need to have a chat with the doctors." Mira stated looking her teacher in the eye.

"Yes. That might be wise." It took a great deal of the witch's self restraint to not say what she really thought which went along the lines of... " _You've been using that curse of all the curses you could have picked!? Holy hellfire fairies Raven what have you been doing to yourself these past seven years!?_ " Curses tended to come with a downside. In this case the shadows ate away at the will to live of anything that they came into contact with. That included the caster.

* * *

 **Review Section** :

Guests: I think you are confused, Apple and Snow White are the ones talking, not Raven and her mother. And Yes, I hope it will.

Wade: Well, it's different from the Show. Here Apple is legitimately working to try and fix the root problem, as oppose to the show where she set out to harass Raven into submission.

Zwei Eis: While I do appreciate your enthusiasm I should also point out that I'll just feel bad about you neglecting your health for this story.

Wyldclaw: That was the idea. Raven's speech in the show was a little... lack luster to me, so I thought I would put a little more force into it.


	14. Chapter 14

**Author's Note** : Ah reviews, glorious reviews, now how about that four reviews to one chapter average eh? Read, Review, Favorite and Enjoy!

* * *

Chapter 14: Please Start Thinking Things Through Snow White

Raven was in the school's hospital wing, Nevermore curled up at her feet, ever since she got back from across the mirror Day to day checkups would become a reality for Raven until such a time that the school's doctors had deemed that there was nothing left to uncover/Raven had made a full recovery. Which considering her luck the latter seemed to be nothing more than a distant dream at this point in time. Case in point.

"You believe miss Queen is Cursed?" Swine-Heart asked in a curious tone of voice. "Well it is not unheard of, but the queen family is known for taking proper safety protocols when it comes to curses and dark magic. So you'll need a bit more than just a vague idea..."

"I _know_ she is cursed you stupid mad doctor!" Baba snapped pointing accusingly towards Raven who was sitting in a chair on the close end of the room. "She apparently habitually casts a rather large number of highly unpleasant curses that even if they have no immediate effect on her, due to the principal of 'The Cursed attracts The Cursed' she will inevitably be put in danger!"

"Hmm. Maybe that explains it?" Raven stated as if commenting on the weather.

"Right then, we need to give her her check up anyway, we should try to utilize the Charming family curse breaking power, see if we can get some princes down..."

"And Princesses!" Raven snapped as if offended.

"Excuse me?" Cat-Eye asked mildly miffed.

"Ah I see. Don't worry we won't Judge." Thief-Hand appeared to catch on much faster than her brothers. "In the mean time we should check on the progress on your leg." Raven was brought onto the soul forge, Cat-Eye and Swine-Heart occupied themselves with Raven's blood samples while Thief-Hand slipped off Raven's boot. "The roots seem to have connected to your arteries nicely, and the wood is quite accepting of your blood. Your flesh is starting to encroach through the wood as well. I say, a couple more weeks and it'll be like it never got blown off in the first place."

"Great, so can I go to my next class now?" Raven asked some hope on her features as she pointed out the door. "Next class is Muse-ic you understand."

"I had heard you were looking forward to that. Well anything to keep your little 'explosions' under wraps." Thief-Hand stated prompting Raven to look downcast. ( _5%_ ) "Oh please I went to school with your mother, you aren't her on the worst day of your life." Stepping aside the doctor indicated the door. "Class, now."

* * *

The door into the muse-ic room opened up and everyone went silent, Raven simply shrugged them off, the very real possibility that it was just Nevermore parting the crowd for her did help, albeit not enough for her tastes.

( _10%_ )

"Raven!" Apple once again glomped Raven, leaving the class to stare for entirely different reasons. "What happened!? They-dragged-you-off-to-the-nurses-office-right-after-you-were-done-evil-spells-and-if-someone-hurt-you-so-help-me...!"

"Apple! Inhale!" Apple took a sharp intake of breath. "Exhale." Before letting it out in a low whistle. "Good!" The uncomfortable Raven separated herself from Apple but held her shoulders firm. "I. Am. Okay! Understood?" Apple rapidly nodded her head, but her look of concern did not entirely disappear. "Until such a time in which the doctors are done poking and prodding me trying to figure out all of my mother's secrets day to day checkups are going to be a daily reality. There is nothing to worry about!"

Apple nodded her head again, before quickly dragging Raven over to the seat next to her and sitting her down. Nevermore made her usual ruckus trying to get to Raven, before she tossed the dragon her bracelet causing her to shrink down to what Raven had dubbed her dorm size as she wore it around her neck like a collar and flew over and land in Raven's lap.

"If we've got the ruckus done with." Mr. Piper stated rapidly tapping one his desk with a conductor's baton. "Instruments are over there." The Muse-Ic teacher stated pointing to the pile of instruments off to the side of the room. "Choose whatever you feel comfortable with." The students subsequently went over and got the instruments from the corner of the room, Raven took out a axe shaped electric guitar from her phone portal and plugged into the mirror's speaker. "Now for the basics, music is about using notes and pitch to create patterns. And while you will also be learning regular music here, Muse-ic also teaches you about spell casting through song, music you see takes many of the same principals of casting a audible spell and turns that into a song, chaining together spells, amplifying their effect, and creating a greater impact."

"If I might ask." Kitty stated holding her hand in the air. "Could you give us a demonstration of Muse-ic?"

"Certainly." Whipping out his flute professor Piper started playing a melody on it. At once, small hairy rodents flooded into the classroom and the class, which largely consisted of 'Fair Delicate Maidens' was thrown into absolute chaos. Nevermore's fire breath put a end to the chaos in short and terrifying order. "Well- _Gah-Gah!_ That was exciting." Professor Piper, slightly singed and his eschew glasses cracked, stated between coughs. "Class dismissed." The Muse-Ic teacher stated adjusting his glasses.

The slightly ashen members of the class started to file out, Apple, dragging Raven who was carrying a slightly worn Nevermore, were the last ones to leave.

"Poor Nevermore, did all that screaming hurt your little ears?" Apple asked rubbing the dragon by her ears.

"It wouldn't have hurt her, while she does has exceptional hearing, she's also built a lot tougher than most other creatures. But she wouldn't have liked it that's for sure." Raven explained stroking her pet on her head. "Next class is Grim-nastics, we should probably get going anyway."

"Why? It's not mandatory for Maidens to take part in it?" Apple asked looking at Raven suspiciously.

"There's blatant sexism and then there's this school." Raven muttered slapping herself in her face. "People who get poisoned, stabbed, shot at and cursed as often as I do should endeavor to live a healthy lifestyle and bring their odds of..." It was then that Raven noticed the way that Apple's eye was twitching, which in her experience usually preceded getting yelled at. "Uh oh."

* * *

On the far end of the school Snow White and the Headmaster was continuing their business from earlier, concerning what they were going to do with their resident would be Evil Queen.

"This isn't going to be easy." Milton stated listlessly.

Their options for Raven were few and far between, to say the least, the most logical course of action was to simply transfer her out of the 'Evil Courses' with the excuse that she already exceeded the standards set by the curriculum and could instead transfer into courses that were better suited to the post-fairy tale life style, which should hopefully help to drag her away from her mother's path of violence and pain. Granted with Ms. Queen's desire to completely forego the Evil Queen role altogether that left open the issue of trying to find a replacement for her. It wasn't like it was unheard of for someone to give up their story for their own reasons and let someone else take over. No that wasn't the issue here. The issue here was that they either had to find a willing living relative of Ms. Queen, or someone who was willing and qualified to take over the role of the most powerful, hated and despised being in all of the United Fairy Tale Kingdoms. This wasn't gonna be easy.

"AAAAAIIIIIEEEEAAAAAAAA!"

"What in the name of the Story Book of Legends was that ghastly sound?" The Headmaster asked crumpling his notes by accident.

"Sounds like someone summoned a banshee into the school. Someone should inform the Magicology teacher and get them to get rid of it." Snow White commented as she went through a list of potentially magically inclined Noble families that would be interested in the tiny chunk of Riordan land that comes with the Evil Queen title. After cleaning his ears the Headmaster returned to his notes and saw that the crumpling of the paper had accidentally created a interesting suggestion.

* * *

"Apple?" Cerise asked looking at the student in question. "What happened to you?" Apple looked slightly out of breath, and her hair was ragged, like she had just gotten into a high tension screaming match with someone.

"Don't ask." Apple, who was still weak looking and was leaning on Raven for support. "I didn't bring any gym clothes, can I borrow some from someone?"

"Well." A Fairy student dressed in gym wear fluttered over and made use of a wand to float some appropriate clothing out of her locker. "My magic sorta has a time limit on it but these will last twelves hours easy."

"Thanks Farrah. Guess I'm going shopping tomorrow." Apple stated in a tone of voice and grabbing hold of Raven's arm in a manner that filled the young witch with dread.

* * *

Five minuets later and Raven had successfully completed the warm up laps around the track outside of the school and was now in the midst of getting some water from a fountain.

"Hmm. Grimnastic's is surprisingly light." Raven commented her purple tracksuit barely having so much as a drop of sweat on it. "I'll have to make up for the rest after class is over." A panicked hissing sound not unlike someone choking echoed behind Raven. Quickly turning around Raven looked down to see Apple struggling to keep up. "Oh dear." It was at this point in time that Raven realized that even though Apple had above average strength thanks to a life time adherence to a diet of buffering type food from Riordan, her actual physical health was way below average. "Seriously? That light little warm up had you crawling along the ground gasping for air?" Raven asked with a incredulous look on her features.

"Light little...? Raven you ran around the track fifteen times!" Apple replied incredulously, having already done the calculations in her head and it seemed that Raven could run at sixty miles per hour, it seems that her stress that she was under a little while ago had vanished after her pathetic attempts to keep up with Raven gave way.

"Well, there are spells that temporarily augment one's physical stats for a while, eats magic like locust though, still mo... I thought it was more efficient to train my magical power and my physical stats at the same time." Raven commented, a little stutter in her voice indicated that she had talked about something difficult for a second.

( _15%_ )

" _Poor thing, just talking about her mother filled her with such feelings of dread._ " Just as Apple was thinking about changing the topic a odd chord was struck by something Raven had said.

"Raven, were you just using magic right now?" Apple asked leaning over Raven while full of suspicion.

"Well, I don't get much of a chance to use magic without people freaking out about it. Doing it all sneaky like in the middle of class is really my only option." Raven shrugged as she watched Nevermore circling above the class.

"Sneaky!" Apple snapped full of dissatisfaction.

"Yes that was the idea." Raven pointed out not quite seeing Apple's point.

Nevermore dropped from the air and landed in behind of the girls, letting out a warning growl at the group approaching from behind, Snow White and her Dwarf entourage.

( _65%_ )

"Sorry Apple, I have to cut class short." Raven explained getting up and going in the opposite direction of Snow White.

"It's alright to feel sad about what happened to your mother Raven." Apple stated grabbing Raven from behind.

"Sad is not what I feel right now Apple." Raven didn't dare turn around to meet Apple's face, not with the rage literally poring out of her eyes. "Maybe one day I'll tell you what's really upsetting me, but for now I need to go vent my magic before I hurt myself again."

"I can come with you if you want." No one would dare say anything if Apple was there, not if she could help it anyway.

"Thank you, but I'm about to do something unpleasant, I'd rather not have a witness." Saying that Apple let go of Raven who climbed onto the back of her dragon.

The young witch locked eyes with the monarch of Ever After, she had the same eyes as her mother, a once gentle soul, who was filled with fury, the kind of fury that only comes from knowing that you had been wronged. The same ones that Morgan had on her face, before they were eventually worn away into a look of tired, defeated apathy. As Raven flew away, Snow White made a promise to herself, that fire would never die, not so long as she lived.

"Mother, do you have a moment to talk?"

* * *

The conversation quickly moved to the Wonderlandian Haberdashery as the mother daughter duo drank tea in the afternoon.

"The Story Book of legends is broken?" Snow White repeated cocking a suspicious brow. "I suspected as much."

"Really?" Apple asked looking confused.

"But before I explain my reasons might I ask why you think as much?" Snow White questioned cocking a suspicious brow at her daughter.

"Faybelle mentioned about it... the damage the previous Headmaster did to the book. And about the magical binding treaty." Snow White nodded in understanding, it would make sense for Apple to have these doubts if she knew about those.

"My suspicions started with Morgan's attack on Wonderland, if the Story Book was functioning as intended, while it might have not been able to stop Morgan from attacking, the rest of us should have felt... ill at the time. At least that's what I was told." Snow White explained shrugging her shoulders.

"What you were told?" Apple asked cocking her head suspiciously.

"I wouldn't personally know, but the Previous Evil Fairy, Faybelle's mother of whom I'm going to have to have words with this evening, was around when some noble fool tried to assassinate The Beast Family heir once, apparently it was not pleasant for any of the parties involved."

"But when Wonderland was attacked..." Apple started a feeling of dread on her features.

"Nothing, Not even from the Evil Fairy. No one even knew Wonderland was in danger until rabbit eared people ran into the streets screaming about Wonderland being under attack." Snow White stated shrugging her shoulders.

"But but... this is the Story Book of Legends! For God Mother's sake if it was damaged wouldn't people figure it out by now!?" Apple frantically waved her hands around in the air while she asked was should have been a obvious question.

"Apple, you do realize that treatise of the Book is not common knowledge right?" Snow White asked making Apple confused and causing Snow White to let out a sigh. "Imagine for a moment, if all the power hungry land grubbing lords of these lands all suddenly learned that the only thing holding the delicate miss-mashed alliance of otherwise easily conquered kingdoms together was a book being kept in a high school of all places?" The Story Book of Legends wouldn't survive the night.

"So why hasn't the Headmaster fixed the book yet?" Apple asked teetering on the delicate edge of despair with the realization that the entire world could come crashing down at any time now.

"He's been trying to, but the one before him sacrificed a high tier magical item to break the damn thing, and it seems that he covered his tracks so well that we can't figure out where or how he sabotaged it to fix it." Snow White explained in a tone that that was equally concerned as Apple's.

"Hmm." Apple put her chin on her fist as she thought about the situation. "Figuring out how to fix the book is the first step for Raven to become the Evil Queen." Snow White had to pause at her daughter's explanation.

"Pardon me: but that sounds very contrary to what I heard your friend's wishes are." Snow white commented in a concerned tone of voice.

"Well, Raven can't become the Evil Queen because people are trying to kill her, and because the book is broken, they might succeed if they keep at it, so if Raven's going to be able to inherit her families birth right, then someone needs to tackle those issues." Apple explained a bright innocent expression on her features.

Snow White could only sigh in despair, her daughter really needed to learn how to plan with people, not for and around them. Thus the Queen of Ever After took in another deep sigh as she prepared to have a chat with her daughter she would not enjoy.

* * *

 **Review Section** :

Guests: I would hope so. Not much. Of Which I hope there will be more. What well Incident are you talking about? I don't recall putting one in this story yet.

Zwei: Thank you, I do try to make all of my characters likable, I'm not found of cartoonish villains who are mindlessly mean for the sake of being mean.

Nightraze: Wow that's a long review. Thank you, I do try to do a fair amount of world building without it amounting to a information dump. As I said before if the Evil Queen's really were a family of tyrants then they wouldn't last long in a world of people who just _love_ a excuse to go conquering and pillaging. And I agree, there does seem to be a trend in fantasy fiction in which certain races are depicted as being inherently the bad guys, of which I am not entirely okay with, and is part of the reason why I like Ever After High and other Franchises where we see 'the bad guys' take on the protagonist's role. Because we don't really realize it some times, but humans are horrible, that's what I learned in history class, humans are a bunch horrible monsters when they want to be. As for the Evil Queen, like I said, I'm not interested in mindless meaness for the sake of being Mean, and that includes the Evil Queen.

My theory is that the book was created in a time following war, due to the top secret nature of the book it's true nature as a magical binding peace treaty couldn't be revealed to the public, and that includes certain members of the fairy tale community, beyond the very real possibility that without signing it they could all go up in smoke. Three hundred years later, and this happens.

Thank you, as I said Apple is slightly unlikable in my opinion, trapped in this little gap between wanting to help her friend and wanting to help her self, with a touch of full blown denial mixed in as well, denial granted that had been beaten into her but not the point here. Between living with Morgan and people trying to kill her every day Raven has gradually gotten very use to things that other people would find utterly terrifying over the years.

Thank you, I like them too!

I am planning on doing romance, eventually, but I plan on torturing my characters a little more too first. But yes, my focus is on world building right now.

It's not a matter of being relaxed on Death as Apple's simply use to it. I will explain in some later chapters.

Wade: Thank you, I like her too. You may not realize it but Raven does have slightly self destructive tendencies, at the time of her refusal to sign the book Raven did legitimately think that not signing it would make her go poof, the fact that she was willing to take the risk of not signing it proves her self destructive tendencies.

Wyldclaw: I wouldn't expect you to, since I made it up.


	15. Chapter 15

**Author's Note** : Welp four reviews to one chapter, ladies if you will.

Hello Dark Lady Readers, Maddie Hatter here!

And Kitty Cheshire!

Here to you today to provide Rainbow Commentary for today's chapter for th special!

Read, Review, Favorite and Enjoy!

* * *

Chapter 15: Why Do You Hate Me Rumpelstiltskin?

One last class for the day, one last class and Raven could go back to her dorm room and enter sweet blissful sleep for a few hours before something else happens today that made her exhaust her entire supply of magic again. Even so she had one final hurdle to over come before then. Science and Sorcery.

"Boil one small cauldron of sea water, slice in two fifteen White Monk Beans, finely chop one bundle of Wormwood, add the burnt ash of the Asphodel root and stir clockwise six times! What potion am I talking about?" Professor Rumpelstiltskin stated pacing back and forth on the table in front of Raven who he had singled out.

"A sleeping potion." Raven stated rolling her eyes. "Though why would you cut the beans up when it's easier just to crush them with the flat of a knife?"

"Don't change the topic!" The short little imp of a man demanded bouncing a ruler off of Raven's table. "What is it called!?"

"I don't know my grandmother didn't tell me what it was called she only gave it to me to help me sleep at night." Sleep through enough nightmares to last Raven a life time after her very own mother cursed Wonderland and left Raven with more than a few scars more accurately.

"Oh so if I was tell to tell you that a patient in the infirmary was suffering from a life threatening injury and needed to be anesthetized immediately which of the contents of two bottles would you give them, Billywig's Mercy or the Draft of the Living Dead?" The imp demanded cocking a suspicious brow at Raven.

"Well..." Raven started seriously pondering the question for a moment, tapping her finger on her Chin. "Draft of the Living Dead sounds like some kind of zombie potion where as Doxie's are a relatively harmless insect whose venom makes people laugh, so I'll go with Billywig's Mercy."

"HA!" The imp punctuated the exclamation by bouncing his ruler off of Raven's table again. "Billywig's Mercy was a potent poison given to fairies who had been stung by the Billywig which had caused their magical power to go out of control and therefore kill them before they can harm anyone else! The Draft of the Living Dead on the other hand is the very same potion I just instructed you on making!" Satisfied with having tripped up the young witch the Professor went back to the head of the class. Raven on the other hand questioned what she had done to make the little guy angry at her, the way that he eyed Nevermore with jealous hungry eyes didn't make her feel better either. "Mrs. Yaga may believe that babying all of you is the best way to shore you all up for the future, but I say that the best way to climb a mountain, is throw safety to the wind and get up as high and as fast as possible!"

"That does not sound very safe." Raven commented in a slightly scared tone of voice.

Then, using a piece of chalk, the diminutive little teacher scrawled across the chalk board a ominous three digit number.

"Chapters 1 through 70." Classroom audibly groaned in exasperation. "By this time next week!" The class groaned even harder now. "And remember to show your work!"

( _70%_ )

" _Good bye restful nights, I hardly knew you._ " Raven let out a loud defeated sigh as she slammed her head into the table.

The bell rang signalling the end of classes for the day, a time of much relief for the students of the entire school, and more specifically Raven who was already reaching her limit for the amount of Magical power her body can contain.

" **Ms. Queen. Would you please report to the Headmaster's office?** " A loud speaker inconveniently situated above Raven's desk asked in Milton Grim's voice.

( _75%_ )

"Now!?" Raven all but whined.

" **Yes now. It is rather important.** " The Speaker replied as if it could hear Raven.

"UGH!" A loud bonk indicated Raven's face making contact with her desk.

( _80%_ )

" _Calm. Calm Raven. Cursing the Headmaster to death isn't going to get anything done._ "

Sucking in a deep breath of fresh air Raven mentally sorted out her priorities. On the one hand the Headmaster was probably just being difficult about something and it could wait until after she vents enough magic to not nuke the school, is what she wanted to say, but the phrase rather important sounded rather ominous.

"Alright, so how much damage can I do from now until I get there?" Asking herself that as she left the classroom Raven mentally cycled through some of the high level spells she knew while Nevermore climbed into her purse, Speed Demon combined high magic consumption and speed, a potent combination that fulfills her needs for the moment. Raven's body began glowing with dark magical power as she sped down the hallway and ran up to the Headmaster's office.

* * *

"My my the little imp is quite the bully isn't he?" Maddie asked looking to Kitty who was sitting next to her in class.

"Indeed someone should do something about him don't you agree Maddie my dear?" Kitty replied a devilish look on her face.

"Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" Maddie asked a smile on her features.

"Oddly Enough, yes." Kitty stated as she disappeared, her Cheshire grin the last thing to be seen.

* * *

"No running in the halls young lady." Mrs. Trollsworth stated not looking at Raven.

Ignoring the troll Raven closed her eyes as she checked to see how much magic power she had burned through.

( _75%_ )

"Oh come on! I ran all the way here with magic and that's the best that it can do!?" Raven snapped in frustration.

( _85%_ )

"It's official, my body hates me." Raven sulked slouching over.

( _90%_ )

"THAT DOES IT!"

* * *

"Well now looks like Raven as a vicious cycle going for her." Maddie stated shaking her head in disappointment.

"The Prank is in play Maddie!" Kitty stated appearing beside her partner in chaos. "Shall we do it now or wait until the Evening?"

"Hmm. Let's wait until Hickory Dickory three Kitty." Maddie stated a mad look on her features.

* * *

Headmaster Grimm was preparing his office, notes about the Evil Queen Candidates were ready, potential alternate lesson plans for Raven had been done up, now all that was left was to earn her cooperation.

( _0%_ )

Suddenly the doors were blown open, galling winds blew the bulk of the paper work out the now opened window and the office was now a mess.

"My apologies Headmaster, but my magical power was about to reach a critical point, so I had to expel as much as I could." The Headmaster spun around to scold Raven, but stopped when he saw the visage of a seven foot tall floating transparent man dressed in Arabian clothing floating behind her. "Hence the Djinn. Before you say anything, you did say that it was important that I get here right away, even though I asked you if it could wait and you said no."

"She has a point you know." Mrs. Trollsworth explained prompting the floating air elemental to nod in agreement.

"Can you talk, or do you have to deal with your friend here first?" The Headmaster asked indicating the floating air elemental.

"I can talk, but I don't think I can stand. Mind if I sit down?" Raven asked visibly weak kneed.

"Go ahead, it is what the chair's are for." Milton stated indicating a rather robust wooden chair that the Djinn had failed to knock over earlier. At once Raven sat down and breathed a sigh of relief, then she looked down at her sneakers, well at least Apple was taking her shopping tomorrow anyway. "Well I had a lot of paper work ready to explain this but..." It was on the floor, and outside, and Raven even thinks some of it blew into the hallway. "I will simply discuss the important parts, and work the finer details of the matter out with you at a later date." Standing up, the Headmaster started to pace around the room. "I assume that you do not wish to become the Evil Queen?"

"Yes. At this time that is very much preferable, though Apple claims to be throwing her family's considerable resources at my circumstances, I haven't seen anything that I think can change anything, at least in a way that I would prefer." Granted Apple had been on the task for what like a day now, still back up plans and all that. "Basically, if I could retain my title and not have to deal with the downsides, great fantastic, but at the moment that looks to be impossible." Raven explained shrugging her shoulders.

"Yes well, there are loop holes in that matter, for starters the Storybook of Legends only dictates that a blood descendant of the original Evil Queen can take on the role." Milton explained looking out the window at all of his hard work that had gone down the drain so thoroughly.

"Walk five feet in Riordan and if you're lucky you'll only trip over about fifty of them." Raven stated seriously.

Witches are beings that live long lives but keep their virility intact throughout that long life span, the average witch would conceive about dozen children in their life time, hundreds back in the days before birth control weren't a thing, at this point in time Raven had a personal policy never to date anyone who looks like her, just in case.

"Yes, that is the logic I'm going for here. But the issue here is finding someone who would take the title willingly. The Evil Queen is after all the most feared being in all of the United Fairy Tale Kingdoms." And that was before Raven's mother got to the title. "It does however come with several benefits. As a start, a rather nice section of land is squared away in your home country for whoever takes the title to retire upon once they get out of the Fairy Tale Business. Secondly, for a prolonged period of time the title secures a position in Ever After's court as chief mage, a position that would give whoever holds it considerable influence over the United Fairy Tale Kingdom. Third it gives the person access to a large sized portion of the considerable amount of wealth that your family owns." The Headmaster stated his hands folded around his back.

"It's the 'benefits' that concern me the most. I can list a hundred names of people who would want to own a chunk of land in my home country, all of them of people who would use that ownership to bring absolute ruin. Being the chief sorcerer in Ever After means that you've got the chops to handle every single magic related problem that is thrown at you, and not everyone can do something like that. Third and most important, money speaks, who ever has access to ours, even a small portion, will have a very big voice." Hence the reasons why Raven was hesitant to simply hand over her family's title, at least not to someone she couldn't trust. "With that in mind Letting Apple throw her weight around and seeing where it takes us seems like a good idea too." Raven explained cocking a suspicious brow at the Headmaster.

"You presume that she simply wouldn't fly off the handle and attempt something reckless." The Headmaster stated turning around and facing Raven with a suspicious look on his face.

"As she is one to do." Raven could only sigh, God Mother have mercy how many situations has Apple dragged her into her reckless ill-conceived schemes thanks to poor planning and a lack of proper knowledge. "It's starting to suspiciously sound like I'm screwed no matter what I do."

"And if I said that there was a way that you could have the best of both worlds? Allow Apple to hatch her schemes in the back ground while you work to distance yourself from the path of Darkness?" Milton asked cocking a suspicious brow at Raven.

"I sense you are about to make your point old man." Raven stated leaning back into her chair and folding her hands together.

"If you, can prove that you possess ability in your 'Evil Classes' that are equal to exceed the standards set by a second year student, then you will be exempt from those classes for the rest of the year." Milton stated in a manner of fact style much to the thoroughly displeased Raven. "Prove that your standards exceed a graduate of this school, and you will be exempt from those classes permanently."

You could hear the tick tock of the clock in the room. Raven stared open mouth at the Headmaster for a good number of minuets, before clamming up with a very serious face.

"If I am to understand what you are saying: In order to break free of being the Evil Queen, I have to first prove that I would be the best Evil Queen ever?" Raven asked a incredulous look on her features.

"In short: Yes." Milton stated in his ever serious tone of voice.

( _10%_ )

"If there is a god up there, he hates me!" Raven stated eyeing the ceiling with a contemptuous glare. "First I lose a leg, then Snow White shows up out of no where, then Rumpelstiltskin dumps that homework assignment on us and now you are sitting here telling me this oxy-moronic plan!" Raven could only pout at this madness, she took a discarded soda bottle and held it up to the Djinn, forcing it inside before capping the bottle and heading back to her dorm room. She may have whimsically summoned the thing just to keep from blowing her top, but that doesn't mean that she was willing to let it loose on the school.

As Raven left the Headmaster entered deep thought.

" _She whimsically summoned a Djinn on the spot, just to burn off a large amount of power, a task that normally requires a drawn out ritual and a insane amount of power by no less than a dozen mages._ " Thinking that the Headmaster Spun around his chair and did his best to suppress a look of horror on his features. "Good God Mother what have I unleashed on my school?"

* * *

Inside of the Sorcery and Science lab a huge tentacle was flailing about having grabbed the diminutive teacher who was cursing like mad and hurling vials of explosive potions at his hideous opponent.

"Well that went better than expected." Maddie noted sitting outside of the class room with a bowl of popcorn between her and Kitty.

"Bye Bye for now!" Kitty replied waving her hand through the air.

* * *

 **Review Section** :

Wade: Snow White has a policy of 'Do as I say not as I do.'

Guest: Ask her mother. I don't have access to the books, all the information I am able to retrieve comes from the Ever After High Wiki. As usual, this will be explained to Apple in quite possible the least subtle way imaginable.

Zwei Eis: Oh trust me, you're gonna like Snow less when you find out why Raven doesn't like her.

Nightraze: Actually it is something Kitty has done in the series itself. In my opinion, if you are gonna go through the trouble of tacking a fancy name onto a class, then the class should be equally fancy. Again I prefer competent people who actually do their jobs, instead of people who poke a Unicorn in the ass trying to hold the school together by sheer force of will, they need a new evil queen? Finding one is in his job description. People don't get the impression that Apple is very smart do to her unilateral drive and fixation on the Evil Queen business. Beneath that however is very intelligent young girl who has the will and the means to put that intelligence to good use. You welcome, feel free to ask more! ;)

Wyldclaw: Thank you. Character Development. A group of dwarves march into your kingdom and try to assassinate the granddaughter of your god mother: What would you do?


	16. Chapter 16

**Author's Note** : Ah yes reviews, sometimes it's not the quantity it's the quality, that one review that says something that just synergies with you like no other. Read, Review, Favorite and Enjoy!

* * *

Chapter 16: I Found Her At The Bottom of A Well!

Raven arrived inside of the dormitory and flopped down on her bed, evidence of a very tiring day plain on her features.

"Good evening study buddy!" The Voice of Apple that was so sweet it made Raven cringe echoed throughout the room.

"Apple, I just busted out a high level spell that used up ninety percent of my magic to keep myself from exploding in front of the Headmaster." As Raven explained this she rolled over and held her hands together in a begging position. "Have mercy on me, please!"

"Not when there is home work to do! We only got five days to go through seventy chapters!" Apple exclaimed prompting Raven to groan.

"Maybe I can bribe the psycho teacher with the Djinn." Raven commented examining the bottle full of magical power she had summoned.

"Raven, did you sneak alcohol onto the school." Apple questioned in a sweet tone of voice that hid a ice cold chill.

"Not gin Apple. A Djinn, a air elemental, one that is quite well known for getting shoved into bottles and granting wishes in exchange for their freedom." Raven explained before shoving the extremely powerful sounding thing into a drawer.

"So what do you plan on doing with it?" Apple asked watching the drawer with interest.

"Devise a plan to send it back to it's own world with the bare minimum amount of damage possible." Raven stated before letting out a yawn.

"But not until tomorrow gets here, it's been a long, exhausting day and I need sleep." Raven stated as Nevermore curled out of her purse to join her, a quick nap before supper and she could then tackle some homework.

"Come on Raven!" Apple stated grabbing hold of Raven and pulling her towards the hallway. "We've gotta go to the study group!"

"Study group? What are you talking about-EEP!"

* * *

In the girl's lounge, a large amount of first year female freshmen were gathered together, text books in hands and lap as they tried to tackle Rumplestiltskin's impossible homework assignment. Then the sound of people wrestling in the next room over echoed, complete with thumpings, screaming and the sound of a angry miniature dragon. Eventually Apple, looking very haggled with her hair sticking out at odd angles and slightly singed, and Raven, looking equally if not more haggled with her tired lack luster expression and bruise to her cheek, entered the lounge, Apple dragging Raven along with a arm of camaraderie wrapped around Raven's arm.

"Look at who I caught lurking around!? Well since she's here anyway how about we have her join our study group everyone!?" Apple replied in a cheery tone of voice as she smiled sweetly, both in direct contrast to her look that was worthy of someone fresh off the front lines of war.

"Some how it feels like the fairy tale magic has reversed itself." Blondie stated prompting Cerise to nod her head.

Raven's tired expression continued as she read through the book, skimmed more accurately, before she closed it and attempted to go to sleep.

"Oi!" An angry and indignant Duchess immediately woke Raven back up. "You're not getting off that easily! If we have to suffer through this nightmare so do you!"

"Oh really, pick a potion from the book and read out the ingredients and preparation, but don't mention the title, or what it does." Raven stated angrily cringing her eyes.

"What are you planning you arrogant little..."

"Four Gold Leaves, six Fox tail, one newt eye, five rot weed and a pint of sixty four proof." Briar read aloud interrupting Duchess before she could set off another of Raven's explosions.

"Rubedo, Vermillion, Aether, Rebis and Quebeth so... it's a healing potion." Raven half muttered before letting out a loud yawn.

"How'd you know that?" Briar asked double checking Raven's answer against the book.

"I memorized the cheat sheet." Raven stated before she started to doze off again.

"What are you babbling about!?" Duchess snapped grabbing hold of Raven by her collar even through she had already fallen asleep, and gently putting her back down on the bed when she heard a growling sound coming from the hallway.

"Well that could have gone better." Briar stated as she pulled her feet up to allow Nevermore to walk by and curl up with Raven. "Why is it that the more plans you concoct to make people get along with Raven the more spectacularly they backfire?"

"Poor planning." Blondie stated as she scribbled notes down from the text book. "That and I'm sure the fact that she looks like she had to wrestle a dragon to get her here has something to do with it."

"I did." Apple replied with a depressed harrumph and Nevermore confirmed with a growl before she wrapped her wings around Raven's body like a blanket.

"Well that plan to try and get people to bond with Raven kinda failed." Blondie stated as she continued to scribble notes. "Just looking for a story here, but why don't you try something different like... oh first day you met Raven!"

"You guys wanna hear about Raven, you guys usually tell me to stop talking about her." Apple stated looking surprised.

"You don't talk about Raven sweetie, rant rave and get lost in your own little world about her." Ashlyn stated patting Apple on the back.

"Well... Admittedly this part is kinda embarrassing." Apple stated scratching her head.

* * *

Apple, at six years old, was chasing a butterfly through the town in Riordan that she and her mother were visiting. Said butterfly flew over a abandoned well and she climbed on top of it to grab it. Apple slipped on something and fell down grabbing onto the bucket hanging on a rope before it snapped with a abrupt jerk that, while it did break what would otherwise be a fatal fall, also destroyed her only way back up.

"Owie..." Moaning that a second pair of hands that did not belong to Apple got her off of her. A purple light lit up the room as the six year old Raven used magic to get a look at the one who fell on top of her.

"Who are..."

"I am Apple White and I'm the fairest Princess of all my mommy said so!" In hindsight the young princess that was less than half her current age realized that she was being rude, she didn't even get Raven's name at the time.

Once introductions was over with, and the strangeness of the situation in general, panic started to set in, as Apple realized that no one knew where she was and that they had no means by which to escape the hole they were in and soon started screaming for help, but alas this was a abandoned well, and things that are abandoned tend to be avoided. Once Raven pulled her fingers out from her ears she looked at Apple who had broke down crying with a sad look cursing herself for wandering off like a bad little girl and getting lost ranting about proper fairy tale etiquette. Raven pulled her fingers out of her ears and briefly mourned the loss of her hat that Apple was now sitting on before tending to Apple and giving her a pat on her back.

"Don't worry, my Mami put me down here while she handles stuff going on in town, and then she'll be back to get me." Raven explained giving Apple a comforting hug.

"Your mommy leaves you at the bottom of wells?" Apple asked incredulous between her sniffling.

"Sometimes, yes." Raven explained before she runs her fingers along the wall. "Look. I know I'm not wise, or old, or mean. But I am a witch, and I can get us out of here."

"How?" The snifflying princess asked confused.

"Like I said, I find myself at the bottom of a lot of wells." Suddenly the wall lit up, revealing that the well was far larger then what the darkness had led them to believe.

More important than that the walls of the dried underground lake was covered in the scrawl of a civilization long past, with runes of magic and tales of heroic deeds detailed on the walls. The two girls followed the tunnel formed from million of years of water running through the cracks of the stone, the pictures on the wall was lit up by Raven's magical power to be much prettier then all of the jewels in the castle Apple was from, and that was saying something.

"Wenig schwarzer Vogel wo sind Sie?" Then Apple started to hear a voice coming down the tunnel, speaking a language that she didn't recognize.

"Mami!" Shouting that Raven ran further down and was swept into the arms of a much older woman. The two of them talked in a language that Apple didn't recognize for a while the woman looking concerned for her younger counterpart and Raven eager to introduce her new friend.

"So you're Hraban's friend are you?" The kind looking mother asked smirking at Apple, her red hat tilted off to the side as she looked down at the princess.

"Hraban?" Apple repeated at the strange sounding name.

"My name's kinda hard to pronounce." The girl introduced as Hraban explained. "It means Raven in your language, you can just call me that."

"Okay Raven!" Apple replied happy to learn her new friend's name, or names as the case was.

The Witch mother used her magic to straighten out Apple's and Raven's clothes and replaced the other's witches hat. The three of them talked for a while as they went through the cave to the surface. The Witches mother gave the girls a firm scolding every few minuets when one of them had wandered near something she said was dangerous.

"You talk like my Grandma." Apple stated giggling as she was led by hand out of the caves.

"I learned how to talk from my mother, as you learned how to speak politely from your parents." The Witch woman stated adjusting her hat as the sun got in her eyes.

"My mom is the Fairest one of all!" Apple stated in a rehearsed sort of way, which indicated that it was more of a trained response than anything else. "Of course I'd learn how to be just like her."

"Oh she must be if you look anything like her." The Witch Woman stated letting out a amused chuckle.

The three of them arrived back in the village shortly after that, Apple saw the well that would now hold a special place in her heart for a very long time.

"Schnitzel!" The Witch Woman politely cursed as she spotted Snow White and her entourage coming their way looking around for something, most likely the wayward princess. "What's she...!?"

"MOMMY!" The Witch Woman froze when she heard Apple's declaration of whose family she was a part of. Immediately Apple ran over to Snow White who had just noticed that she was missing to give her a hug and tell her all about her new friend that she had just met. Snow White walked right past her daughter and locked eyes with the one that she had come looking for in the first place.

"Evil Queen!?"

"Look Mommy that's my new friend Rav..." Apple froze mid tug of her mother's dress, the Evil Queen's eyes were glowing red like the burning eyes of a demon, black and Red smoke had protectively swirled around her and Raven, the Evil Queen let out a animal like snarl before she scooped up Raven and flew off before disappearing.

* * *

"You actually saw the Evil Queen?" Blondie asked in disbelief.

"I held her hand." Apple admitted smiling bitterly, prompting Blondie to drop her pencil. "The First time I heard about what happened to Wonderland I couldn't believe that she actually did something like that. Mom was..." Apple needed a minuet to breath, watching your own mother emotionally break down at such a young age was very... lasting for Apple. "Mom was... When we got home from that trip, she admitted the person she had went to see was the Evil Queen. She had said... something in the past that she regretted to her and she wanted to apologize. But by the looks of things she didn't want anything to do with her. Grandma Jasdiv came by every once and a while with Raven up until Wonderland." Apple's hand wrinkled her dress as she spoke a set of ominous words. "I don't know what happened to make the Evil Queen that way, but I swear, that what ever it was, I will never let it happen to Raven!"

* * *

 **Review Section** :

Guest: Thank you, random person who unfortunately hasn't dropped their name, you are officially my new favorite Reader on Fan Fiction! It's nice to know that there are people who actually appreciate me spending so much of my free time on this story.

Wade: You do realize that is exactly the kind of plan that a Wonderlandian would come up with right?


	17. Chapter 17

**Author's Note** : Ah reviews, my favorite time of the week! And My dad's going back out west today, so more time for writing. Read, Review, Favorite and Enjoy!

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Chapter 17: Smok 4 Heroes 0

Rumpelstiltskin had to do a double take on the assignment handed to him during his class. It was down right ludicrous. Raven had finished the entire assignment in one night, not only that but she had shown her work as well, listing off the various changes she had made as well as bringing several bottles with her filled with most of the potions in question.

"There is a limit to believable young lady." Rumpelstiltskin stated glaring at Raven.

"There's a limit to my budget as well, I hope you appreciate how much it cost to make all of this." Raven stated with a tired look in her eyes.

"You had to make a few of the potions young lady! And I sincerely doubt you completed one week's worth of homework in one night." Rumpelstiltskin stated as he marched over the desks and looked Raven in the eye.

"Only you could call that one week's worth of homework." Raven stated letting out a yawn.

"Don't change the subject!" The Impish man ordered sticking his finger into Raven's face.

"To answer your question, I had to enchant fifty pencils and have each of them complete the questions in each of the chapters separately. Similar instructions were issued to my working utensils to make the potions simultaneously." Raven stated before she was interrupted again by the impish teacher.

"So you did Cheat!" The impish man letting out a cheer. "There is no way a student could write out all of that information from the book!"

"Except that I didn't." Raven stated prompting Rumpelstiltskin to glare at her suspiciously. "If I had then it would be a word for word quote of the contents of the book, instead I put it into my own words and added the improved procedures taught to me by my moth-family for extracting and filtering the key ingredients. On top of which I could only enchant the utensils in the proper manner if I already knew the details of each of the potions that they were assigned to make."

"Which were not in your book! Not these ones anyway!" The impish man accused with renewed vigor, from the view point of the other students it looked like he was looking for a reason to accuse Raven of something unsavory. "Do I need to go over the lecture from the other day about making potions too potent for their own good?" The impish little man stated with a equally impish smile on his face.

"Water's cheaper, and costs less then most of the ingredients I had to use up." Raven stated often recalling when her grandmother needed to make a sleeping potion for her she would mix it in with a barrel of water or juice first which removed the often unpleasant taste it had and watered it down to the point where it was actually safe to drink.

"Ah but in the event of a emergency..." The imp of a man started before Raven figuratively and literally put her foot down.

"The school carries on hand antidotes for over two hundred different kinds of poisons and various supplementary treatments, unless of course you are referring to someone out in the field requiring a potion of exact potency on the spot, in which case if there was a risk of that happening it would be wise to bring along the necessary potion prepared before hand. Unless of course you mean for me to do something impractical like having all the ingredients in my purse or otherwise on hand, in the case of the latter that would imply that the poisoning took place inside of the school's chem-myth-ry lab which you run. Do you mean to imply that your labs are not safe sir?" Raven asked glaring at the teacher in question with a deeply annoyed look on her face.

The impish man looked around the room at the various students who had joined Raven in staring down the little man and forcing him to concede defeat.

"Alright! Alright! Alright! Alright!" The little teacher hopped onto his floating welcome mat and went back to the front of the class. "Since this is clearly not enough for someone of your level of ability, Chapters 71 Through 140! Tomorrow!"

"No I think not." Raven stated her irritated look not fading. "What did you say you mouthy-"

"According to the school's charter of student rights." Raven stated dropping the text book sized leather bound object in question on her desk with a rather loud thud. "Page 2021 Teachers are not allowed to give homework assignments exceeding ten chapters per school day of the week given to complete it before mid months of the school year, when they are already familiar with the basics. As this rule is meant to apply during the months of December, January and February on the days of Monday through Friday and the days of Saturday and Sunday are included in your 'One week deadline' this means that with your previous assignment you have already made two infractions of the charter of student rights already." Rumpelstiltskin's jaw bobbed in a manner reminiscent of a fish gasping for water with a terrified look in his eyes, prompting the rest of the class to turn their attention to Raven as a realization slowly dawned on them. "Of course I'm surprised that you aren't aware of these amendments, considering that they were made specifically in your honor." Raven lectured in a dull monotonous tone that indicated her lack of sleep, leaving the rest of the class to wonder if she was up all night reading that book. "What with your long lasting history of giving out unfair home work assignments and turning the resulting detentions into a labor camp for your own profit, according to the headmaster anyway."

As if on cue the speaker phone in the class room sprang to life as Milton's voice echoed out of it.

" **Sorry for the interruption students, would Professor Rumpelstiltskin please report to the Headmaster's office. Now!** "

The impish man locked his jaw up in dissatisfaction, sent glares Raven's way before jumping on his flying welcome mat and going out the front door. In his place was Professor Charming, who was assigned to look after the class presumably by benefit of not having anything to do during this period in time, but there was one critical flaw with this logic.

"Good morning class. I'm afraid that I don't really know anything about Chem-myth-ry. But if Miss Queen could come up here to speak in my place..." With her tired look still present, Raven marched over in front of the class and dropped the neatly bound stack of work that was seventy chapters long on the desk in front of the Substitute teacher.

"This part covers the basics as taught to me by my Grand mother." Raven stated flipping open the front part of the book which included a neat and detailed list of various alchemical properties. "That should do for a class about the basics."

"Ah of course, you must have been up all night doing this. You should sleep but I don't know how your other teachers will appreciate you skipping class to sleep in." The substitute teacher in question stated scratching his chin.

"A Hour. That's all I'm asking for." Raven held both her hands together in a prayer and plead with her eyes for mercy.

"If it's only a hour, then there will be no problem sleeping through this class that you clearly don't need." Professor Charming stated with the warm smile that typified his family name.

Raven, smiling happily as she closed her eyes, fell backwards on Nevermore who quickly zoomed in to catch her falling master. Nevermore's back must have been extremely comfortable, because Raven made herself right at home even as Nevermore carried her to the far corner of the class and curled up with her. The hour passed by quickly with Raven quietly sleeping in the corner and Professor Charming reading Raven's easy to understand instructions to the class. Eventually first class ended and Raven awoke from her slumber still looking tired, but also very refreshed.

"That's some Catnap." Maddie commented looking at the visibly refreshed Raven.

"I've learned to cope with extended restless nights long ago Maddie." Raven commented with a bitter look on her features.

"I hope so, cause the reporter girl is out for your jugular." Maddie stated smiling deviously.

"What!? What did I ever do to Blondie!?" Raven commented a terrified look spread out on her features.

"Students of Ever After High!" The voice of the mad Blonde girl in question echoed as Raven and Maddie walked down the Hallway. "Join me after school today for my exclusive interview with the girl that took down the 'Detention Goblin' of Ever After High Raven Queen!"

"Oh." Maddie waggled her brows knowingly at Raven with a big grin on her features. "Did you put her up to this?" Raven asked her friend in a accusatory tone of voice.

"No that honor goes to her!" Turning around Raven had but a few moments to process what happened next.

"Raven!" Apple leaped through the air and tackled Raven to the ground on top of Nevermore while Apple proceed to crush Raven's rib cage. "Now you can on the mirror cast and tell everyone how sweet and wonderful and smart and..." Nevermore's tail inserted itself between the two and forcibly separated Raven and Apple.

"Dear lord she's gonna kill me one of these days!" Raven wheezed holding her hand to her chest. "Apple, you know I don't appreciate being caught up in your mad schemes." Raven stated as the blonde helped her to her feet.

"But..." Apple was suddenly prevented from hugging Raven again by Nevermore's wing and growl combination while Raven worked to calm her down. "But this is your chance to show everybody that you're not scary!" Apple cried out in a pitiful pleading way.

"I can't argue with logic like that." Raven stated letting out a deep sigh causing Apple to smile brightly at her. "Well come on then, maybe we can get through next period without me humiliating our teacher again." Before Raven and Apple went into Muse-ic Raven met up with professor Charming and handed him Nevermore. "Now we're going to be taking Muse-ic outside today right next to where the boys are gonna be taking Heroics 101. So I want you to be good for Professor Charming and not hurt anyone. Understood?" Nevermore let out a reluctant growl as she rubbed her muzzle into Raven's palms. "If it makes you feel better I'll take you to the training fields myself. Just think of it as back when you were being trained to fight way back when." Nevermore visibly brightened as a subtle fire went into her eyes with Raven's words. "Sorry about this Professor. She was trained to avoid spending prolonged periods of time away from me." Raven explained with a apologetic look on her features.

"Oh no apologies needed Miss Queen." Professor Charming stated as he handed Nevermore's leash back to Raven. "After all it is us who have selfishly requested the use of your most excellent bodyguard who does not wish to be away from her master for even a moment." Nodding, the three of them went out to the fields, on the edge of which Raven's muse-ic class had already been set up. Now normally this special occasion type scenario would not be happening at the beginning of the year. "Alright class, y'all familiar with your training partner!"

Rather it was made to accommodate the use of Nevermore as a training partner for the Heroics 101 Class who would be ganging up on the dragon who would not tolerate being away from Raven.

"Sorry for the inconvenience Professor Piper." Raven commented resting her phone on the bench as she used it to access a separate pocket dimension and pull out a guitar that looked suspiciously like a re-purposed battle axe. "Oh no such thing, fresh air is good for the lungs after all!" Saying that Professor Piper inhaled sharply. "Now than, Do Ray Me on my count."

While the Muse-Ic class reviewed the basics Nevermore was sizing up her opponents. There was a common misconception that dragons were simple mindless savage beasts, this misconception was based on the fact that they couldn't speak, when the reality was nothing could be further from the truth. Underneath their scaly flesh lies a intelligence on the same level as humans, and it wasn't so much a fact that Dragons couldn't talk, only that they didn't develop the necessary vocal cords until they were much older. As such Nevermore's slitted eyes went side to side as she calmly summed up her opponents. Far left, kite shield, short sword, close distance emphasis on defense, shield too small to cover nether regions, weakness legs. Second to left, duel wielding short swords, close distance emphasis on offense, same individual with the glasses from before, deploy secondary eyelids. Middle, compound bow, penetrating power, long distance, biggest threat take down first. Right, halberd, mid range offensive power, but leaves open during swings. Small amounts of Magical power coming off of each of them, approach with caution. With this knowledge in mind Nevermore raised one of her lips in a challenging snarl.

"Nice dragon." Dexter stated in a calming voice, flipping around his swords once more and readied himself for battle.

"On your marks: Begin!"

Nevermore used her tail as a spring board to take to the air, she fired a bolt of super heated blue flame through the air and hit where Sparrow was standing before he rolled out of the way. Sparrow returned fire with his bow, but Nevermore dropped back to the ground and released a gust of fire incinerating more of the incoming projectiles before spinning around, hitting Hunter in his legs with her tail and grabbing hold of Daring's leg with her mouth. With Nevermore's own built in sunglasses already in place she was already immune to his attempt to blind her with his smile and tossed him through the air at Sparrow. Dexter charged in next blades ready to stab at Nevermore, and taking into account Nevermore's fiery morning breath had wisely chosen to use the blades with the combination of ice and wind enchantments that had been dubbed 'extinguishers.' The blades that was made to smother flame easily put out Nevermore's fire breath and gave Hunter the chance to get behind the dragon and put her into a choke hold with the shaft of his halberd, wrapping her fore legs and wings in joint locks with his arms and stomping down on her tail. As expected of the one meant to beat the next Big Bad Wolf in a wrestling match, the next Huntsman was a foe who's specialty laid in excessive brute force. But Nevermore was not just any old dragon, she the finest monster bred by the Evil Queen herself to serve as protector to her one and only daughter. She would not be defeated by a half-cocked combination like this. At once Nevermore shrunk down escaping from Hunter's clutches in the process. The shrunken dragon took advantage of her new size to circle around Dexter who was getting ready to strike again before turning back to her proper size on the other side of the duel wielder. By the time Dexter had turned around again Nevermore had set the grass between them on fire. Dexter acted quickly to extinguish the flames and in that gap Nevermore leaped through her smoke screen and tackled him with enough force to knock the wind out of him. Hunter attempted to deliver a overhead chop, and Nevermore seized the opportunity to strike, biting down on the halberd and tackling it's wielder to the ground, wrestling it from his grasp and aimed it pointed end first at his neck line.

"Alright that's enough." Nevermore let out a dissatisfied grumble at the professor's interference, she could swear her hunting instincts were going dull spending all of this time around these softies. "Doctor if you wouldn't mind." Nevermore spat out the weapon as Doctor Cat-Eye came over to assess the damage to the students, truly dragons were not creatures to be underestimated.

* * *

 **Review Section** :

Wade: Well I can't take all of the credit, took the idea for the scene from a little number Sigmu did in one of his stories.

DJ: Why thank you, Feedback from my favorite Reader can never go amiss.

Guest: If that's how you feel I'm probably going to have to come up with more chapters about little Apple and Raven pretty soon. Like I said, part of my goals is change Apple's fanatical obsession with fairy tales into one for Raven.

Zarsla: No. Jasdiv is Raven's Grandmother, and Apple's mother Godmother. That doesn't stop her from being all grandmotherly to Apple as well.

Zwei Eis: You're just figuring this out now?


	18. Chapter 18

**Author's Note** : Ah reviews, how I love you, I would write a poem about how I like Reviews, if I didn't suck at poetry that is. Read, Review, Favorite and Enjoy!

* * *

Chapter 18: This is your corner Cupid

A somewhat annoyed Raven was sitting down in a chair in the nurses office, what had to be the sixtieth student with the last name Charming having walked up to her and kissed her on the cheek left the nurse's office after having failed to make a difference in the curses in her system. On the bright side if the whole dark sorcerer or more preferably forest enchanter thing didn't work out she had a promising career as a walking kissing booth. Having crossed off another name off of their list the school's trio of doctors rolled up their list of charming students.

"Well that's all of them, bring it in." At Cat-Eye's instructions the remaining two doctors rolled in a post that had a dagger chained to it.

Basically the contraption worked on the principal of 'the cursed attracts the cursed' if the cursed dagger reacted to Raven, then that means that she was still cursed. Which point of interest she was, if the way that the thing was trying to stab her was any indication.

"Well that failed." According to the doctor's sensors, they had successfully cleared out the vast majority of left over bits and pieces of spells and curses that was in Raven's system following her many years of spell casting in self defense. But all of that paled in comparison to the handiwork of Morgan Queen who has been hailed as a genius and a prodigy in magic with massive reserves of power to back that talent up. "Hmm. We might have to take drastic measures, perhaps we should contact Charming Prep?"

"WHAT!?" Raven fell out of her chair having literally been stunned off of her rocker. Exasperated she pulled herself up via the chair. "DO YOU MEAN THAT THERE'S MORE OF THESE PEOPLE RUNNING AROUND!?"

"Not exactly. In order to try and increase their genetic diversity, horrible thing inbreeding, a branch of the Charming family opened a private school meant to try and encourage the development of the curse breaking powers of the people at large and then marry them off to the members of their extended families. The ones we just went through, are part of established Charming families who go here in hopes of becoming part of their own fairy tale." Swine-Heart explained, not that Raven was in any sort of mood to listen.

"Nope! No! Definitely not!" Raven stated crossing her arms in a act of securing sanctuary. "I refuse to become Charming throne work for a entire School!"

"That might be what we have to do." Thief-Hand stated sitting in a chair and scribbling alternative solutions down on a piece of paper. "It became obvious a rather long time ago that the Evil Queen would not be foiled by half Cocked methods."

"Then why did you make me sit here and go through with all of that?" A thoroughly exasperated Raven stated looking dumbstruck.

"We'll have to call in the big guns on this one, call the Evil Fairy, the Beast, Mrs. Yaga and the Winter family."

"That... sounds like a awful lot of preparations." Raven commented mildly concerned.

"Can we really get all of them to cooperate? They didn't even use 'that' when the Beast wasn't transformed back to normal after his story." Swine Heart asked looking concerned.

"Right... I'm not involved in this conversation in the least bit so I'll just go now." Raven stated getting up and exiting the office. Not too long after Raven had been ambushed by a certain blonde haired princess.

"Apple!" Raven wheezed even in spite of Nevermore's best efforts to separate the witch from the princess. "OH-I'M-SO-GLAD-YOU'RE-NOT-CURSED-ANYMORE-AND-EVERYTHING-IS-GONNA-BE-OKAY-AGAIN-AND Raven...?" For a second time in a few minuets, Apple freaked out again and it took a incredibly annoyed dragon to keep her from rushing Raven back to the infirmary. "I'm sorry!" Apple state looking apologetic and sitting on her knees on the floor while Raven looked down at her.

"It's alright Apple, you just gotta learn your own strength, either that or give me fair warning so that I can put up a barrier." Raven stated being supported by Nevermore.

"Okay!" Ignoring Raven and the latter half of her sentence she had mumbled Apple immediately perked up springing to her feet. "Come on Raven! I wanna go shopping~!" In spite of having said that though, Apple instead led Raven to the mirror cast room where Blondie was getting ready for the interview everyone was waiting for all day.

"Uh oh." While Raven understood that it was necessary to take advantage of such situations such as her standing up to professor Rumpelstiltskin when he was being unfair for her to become more likable in the future, that doesn't change the fact that she was not comfortable with speaking in front of people, years of them running away from her in stock raving terror had that effect. "You tricked me." Raven stated flatly prompting Apple to nod happily.

"Yep!" Was all the warning that Raven got before Apple pushed her into the room nearly causing the young witch to trip over herself. "Ah Raven Queen!" Blondie stated holding out her hand not noticing Raven having nearly tripped over herself getting in. "So nice to finally meet." The two of them had met before, twice to be precise, the infamous 'bubblegum gargoyles' incident and the more recent 'dwarf/dragon battle' but neither of those left a very good, but lasting all the same, impression upon her.

"Uh Pleasure. Is there somewhere we can record the interview or..." Raven asked looking around the room and scratching her head nervously.

"Unfortunately your time with the doctors ate up all of our time." Blondie stated letting out a disappointed sigh. "Our segment is gonna start soon which means that we're gonna have to go live." To Blondie's statement Raven froze up with a look of terror on her features.

"Um uh, I'm... not good with live." Raven stuttered her eyes darting around the room worriedly.

"Why stage fright?" Blondie asked cocking a suspicious brow.

"Um... not exactly, not at first any way. I've gotten on stage a couple of times before... and outside of my homeland they tend to be accompanied by some... really unpleasant things being thrown at me, people accusing me of trying to cast a curse on the crowd. After that happened a certain... anxiety started to appear. I'm fine if it's a recording, but if it's live I'm afraid of some... unpleasant things being said and done about me."

"Hmm." Blondie started to twirl her finger in her hair as she thought about a solution to this predicament. "Is it alright if we use a two minuet delay from the recording to broadcast? We already do that all the time, it gives us a bit of leeway in case someone stutters or get nervous or something of the like."

"I fail to see how that will make people not want to scream at me or accuse me of trying to curse the school." Raven stated in a depressing dead panned tone of voice. It was true, the students of this school were not at all understanding when it came to Raven. From day one a irrational fear had been burned into their subconsciousness that inspired a unrivaled sense of fear of the witch whenever she came near. "Got any ideas, from that clock over there it looks like it will be show time soon." Raven stated looking at a clock.

"That is a problem." While Blondie seriously thought about this situation she suddenly came up with an idea. "We could try a placebo where in we tell the student body that we have special measures in place that will keep them from getting cursed."

"That would imply that I'm actively trying to curse the school, or that people will get cursed just by looking at me." Raven stated tiredly.

"Clearly you have put serious thought into this." Blonde stated acknowledging the point that Raven had made.

"I've had to, I'm a princess too, this is gonna become a daily part of my reality soon." Raven explained rubbing her temples.

"Oh wait I've got another idea!" Blondie stated in a eureka like posture.

* * *

Admittedly the students were slightly annoyed by the delay from the otherwise regularly scheduled mirror cast program. But once the 'please standby' screen blinked out of existence it was replaced by the sight of two people sitting together behind a desk. One was the expected Raven, but the other was not Blondie, if the pink hair and tiny bird like wings behind her back were any indications.

"Good afternoon Ever After high, I am C.A. Cupid, filling in for Blondie Lockes who's suddenly feeling under the weather." The pink haired girl who resembled her name sake stated in a happy tone. "Joining me today is our special guest Raven Queen!"

Being a demi-god of love, Cupid was the ultimate manifestation of the curse breaking power of true love, the perfect antithesis to the ultimate manifestation of dark magic Raven. That was the theory anyway. Reality was that no such thing as a 'embodiment of true love' either there was the one in a million couple that had it, or there wasn't, that said it did succeed in a unconscious placebo effect on the student body.

"Hello." Raven replied while waving at the camera.

"So Raven. Not many people have the balls to stand up to Rumpelstiltskin." Cupid stated folding her hands on her lap as she smiled at Raven.

"If they did my life would be significantly easier." The sound of a laughing tracked echoed throughout the studio at Raven's comment, Raven choosing to ignore what someone had interpreted as a joke.

"So Raven tell me about how you decided to take down the resident detention goblin of Ever After high?" Cupid asked mentioning Rumpelstiltskin's infamous nickname.

"Well, I thought that a 70 chapter long homework assignment the first week of school was just excessive, I couldn't even finish all the potions in the book with all of my potion supplies." Supplies that was suppose to last Raven a month and that she would now have to replace if she had any hope of being able to function in school. Potions that she was up all night making costing her a solid night's sleep, not that she could sleep through Apple's snoring, she'd have to cast a silence spell around her bed when she got back to her dorm. "After that Mrs. Yaga came up to me to talk about some of my courses when she saw what I had done and asked me why I was working on so many potions. I told her about the Throne work assignment, she told me about he charter of student rights, and I guess she told the Headmaster because right after I was done talking to Professor Rumpelstiltskin Headmaster Grimm called him to his office."

"I see. Still, even with Mrs. Yaga being the one to point out rules you were the one who told off Professor Rumpelstiltskin. Very Brave." Cupid stated making a big knowing smile at Raven.

"If you say so. I don't know what everyone finds so scary about the little guy." Raven stated shrugging her shoulders.

"Moving on. Here are some questions submitted by the students for our guest." Putting on a pair of glasses and holding up her mirror pad Cupid began with the first question.

"So, what can you tell us about Nevermore?" To this question, the seven foot long reptile put her upper body onto the desk.

"She's a hybrid of a couple of rare dragon species that was created using chimera based magic." Raven explained giving the reptile a scratch behind her ears. "The Night Fury, a fast, agile, intelligent and incredibly rare dragon breed that's been favored by my family for years." Raven took off Nevermore's collar that she was wearing as a bracelet and put it around the dragon's neck, leading her to shrink down to her 'dorm size.' "And a Jormangandr a equally rare if not rarer dragon breed that can alter it's size to suit it's environment. Each subsequent generation is bred using very specific dragons chosen only after careful deliberation, resulting a bloodline as extensive and complex as any royal family."

"So that makes Nevermore a little princess too." Cupid stated reaching over to scratch Nevermore on her horns, only for the dragon to snap at her. "Not too terribly friendly though."

"Stick your hand out palm up and let her sniff you." Following Raven's instructions Cupid did as she was told and the dragon seemed more accepting of the pink haired girl giving her a scratch under her chin. "This is me taking a moment to clear something up." Raven stated holding her hand up and drawing attention. "Nevermore is a Dark Dragon, a phenomena that occurs when a dragon is slightly overcooked in their egg which gives them darker scales and a slightly more aggressive disposition which means that they need a touch more love and tender care then their lighter scaled counterparts. It doesn't, contrary to popular belief, make them evil."

"And yet they're the type favored by your family of 'Evil Queens' if popular rumor is to be believed. Why is that?" Cupid asked shooting Raven a coy look while her finger tips dug into Nevermore's chin.

"Naturally, royalty only settle for the best bodyguards, other families choose to hold big huge tournaments inviting people from across the lands to prove their mettle as knights. We raise our own warriors, and yes that does include using dragons that are slightly more inclined to aggression than others." Raven stated tiredly petting down the back of her black beast of a dragon.

"Very good, moving on." Turning her attention back to the mirror pad Cupid brought up another question. "So I hear you know quite a bit of magic."

While Cupid quizzed Raven in this manner Blondie was standing off to the side with Apple, having just gotten back from Maddie with apple cider tea and honey dabbed tea for the both of them.

"Nice move with Cupid by the way." Apple stated accepting the to go cup from Blondie.

"Well she does want her own segment for giving out love advice from the love goddess herself. This'll give her plenty of practice and serve as a nice introduction." Blondie stated as she and Apple tapped cups in a cheers.

"I appreciate you doing this yah know. Raven... isn't good with people." Apple commented sadly while she drunk her name sake tea.

"Ha yah I knew that much from the time she chased me up a tree with a pink gargoyle." Blondie commented letting out a laugh. "But... I was there that night a little while ago, when Raven lost her leg. And the only thing that I could think of at the time was 'this is the person everyone's scared of?' In retrospect it feels like a bad joke."

"Still, I know, I feel it in every fiber of my being." Apple had a warm look on her features as she watched Raven explain some of the finer points of Magic. "Raven's gonna be spectacular!"

* * *

Inside of a study covered in fog, a woman sitting in a arm chair was looking at a full length mirror across from her, depicting the interview with Raven, and warm amethyst eyes nodding with approval.

"Give my daughter a clap boys." Several pale dwarfs with white hair and wrinkles clapped their hands stifly upon the woman's command, fearful of the consequences of disobeying her.

* * *

 **Review Section** :

Zwei Eis: Which makes me realize people sink way too much thought into their stories sometimes.

DJ: Thank you. I've read more than a few of Sigmu's stories, and anyone who hasn't read one of Sigmu's stories yet I whole heartedly recommend they go and give their profile a once over once they are done here. She will, and I intend to. :) PS: You do realize that you can sign your name in the slot that says guest right?

Wade: That I don't know, what I do know is that it will be a terrifying battle of the ages.

Nightraze: The title's called the Evil _Queen_ for a reason yah know. Even if you're not really a Queen if you got the title you might as well be one. Small children usually are cute. And don't worry, I'll get to the EQ and SW story one of these days. Thank you for saying so. As long as I'm going to do the 'Evil Teacher' stereotype, I might as well be proper about it, with a character arc and all. Hopefully Apple will learn think before she leaps. At the very least it's impossible to put her in a strangle hold.


	19. Chapter 19

**Author's Note** : Ah Reviews, how I love you all. And how I love all of you for writing them. And how I love writing because of that. Read, Review, Favorite and Enjoy!

 **Amended Author's Note** : Because some people seem to be under the impression that because someone's hair has turned white and they are obeying the whims of a unstable lunatic with the power to snap people in half with a snap of her fingers means that they're minds have been destroyed.

* * *

Chapter 19: Let's Go Shopping Evil Queen

A contingent of Snow White's dwarfs had come from Dwemor in order to pick up their murderous brethren and put them somewhere they would never see the light of day again. The issue here was, when they pulled them out of the mirror, they looked completely different. Pale skin, white hair, sunken eyes. They looked like they had the life scared out of them.

"What In Godmother's name?" Milton questioned while looking down at the prisoners in question.

"Next time you want them back intact don't drop them on my doorstep while I'm bored." Milton turned around to Morgan sitting on one of the desks of the detention mirror of which the dwarfs had been held, and to which the other dwarfs were threateningly pointing their halberds to.

"On your doorstep!? Since when can you leave your prison!?" Milton exclaimed shocked and awed.

"The Mirrors connecting the school, my mother's castle... and White's castle are my prison." Morgan said the last part with a fair amount of distaste, obvious when you consider how much time that woman liked to attempt to prattle in her ear.

"You've been in there for seven years! Are you telling me that you've had free reign of the school's mirror network for seven years!" Milton paid a horrified glance to the dwarfs who looked like they seen hell. "I've put children in those Mirrors!"

"Unlike you, I like children." Morgan stated shrugging her shoulders. "But Dwarfs, Dwarfs I hate!" The heavily armed short people in question tensed up and moved a step closer aiming their weapons at the witch's midsection. "I especially hate dwarfs who try to kill my daughter. In fact there are only two things I hate more then child murdering Dwarfs. Do you know what those two things are?" Morgan asked looking at Milton her brow cocked.

"I suspect I already know." Milton stated heaving a sigh. "Oi can you hear me?" Milton stated snapping his fingers in the face of one of the dwarfs.

"Yes." The individual in question replied.

"Do you have any idea what she did to you?" Milton asked drawing his attention to the apparent leader of the dwarfs.

"I merely showed them what they were dealing with." Morgan replied shrugging her shoulders.

"What did she show you?" Milton asked shooting his daughter a very poignant glare.

"Darkness." The dwarf replied visibly shuddering at the thought.

"Please be sure to show all your friends back in Dwemor what I've done here, and inform them that if anyone else tries to swoop in and murder my family, next time I'll do a whole lot worst then employ some all natural hair dye!" Morgan stated as she disappeared back into the mist of her prison.

"Put her back in!" Milton barked prompting a all to eager dwarf to comply, shoving the mirror that the Evil Queen had been sitting in back into the wall. "I want a physical and psychological evaluation of these men on my desk as soon as possible!" Milton barked sending the dwarfs off to somewhere that was immensely more pleasant then where they've been staying.

* * *

The Fairy Fashion Fair, Book End's resident fashion boutique manned by the GoodFairy Family. Once Raven was finally released by the Mirror cast team as promised Apple took Raven out to expand upon their respective wardrobes. In the case of Apple, she needed to get proper gym wear in the absence of actual proper gym wear. That and Apple needed to return Farrah's clothes anyway.

"Thanks for letting me borrow these." Apple stated handing over the freshly washed gym clothes over to Farrah.

"Wow you washed them and everything, that's way better then when Faybelle borrows my clothes." Farrah commented smelling the scent of fabric softener in the clothes. "Oh! Apples and Cloves!"

"While we're here me and Raven need to get a little bit of shopping done." Apple commented her arm wrapped around Raven as she leaned on her cane for support.

"I need new shoes." Raven stated holding up a pair of sneakers that were on the cusp of falling apart.

"How did you..." Farrah commented in shock, looking down at the part wood part flesh leg of Raven.

"Physical activity is gonna accelerate my recovery, as is pumping magic into my legs, on top of which I already had these for a few years." Raven explained indicating the shoes.

"I could tell." Farrah stated peeling back the insoles on the sneakers before she dropped them into the waste basket beside her. "Shoes are the next department over."

"Thanks Farrah." Raven stated, getting just _that_ far before Apple yanked her back to her side.

"First thing's first, we have come for clothes!" Apple declared in the same tone of voice one would use before going into battle.

Even though they were here for Gym wear, Raven soon found herself yanked over to the department that looked tailor made for villain students, hell it looked like her mother's closet but in her size, like Apple had a entire wardrobe tailor made just for Raven, it wasn't even on the racks yet and were being kept in vacuum sealed bags.. That was how terrifying her resources seemed at times.

"Oh look at this one Raven!" Apple stated pulling over a long black dress with far too much fabric and far too many feathers to be considered practical. "It's perfect for..."

"I'm not wearing any Evil Queen Regalia Apple." Raven stated narrowing a glare at Apple.

"But, but, but..." Apple had a dejected look on her features, she was looking forward to this way too much.

"No!" Raven repeated narrowing a glare at Apple.

"You're not even gonna try it?" Apple donned her best puppy dog look as she made sad eyes at Raven.

"Try it? Apple I don't even think I can walk in it!" Raven pointed out in exasperation at the highly impractical outfit.

"Now you're just being unreasonable!" Apple snapped in a harrumph.

"Oh really?" Raven asked giving Apple a coy look. "Prove it."

Twenty minuets later, far too much time in Raven's opinion for someone to spend on getting dressed, Apple emerged from the changing room and started to walk towards Raven.

"See? I told you..." A loud rip indicated a cruel joke from the universe. Apple stepped on the rim of the dress creating a tear, before she promptly put her foot through that rip and with a loud "Hyaah!" tripped and fell over on the ground with a loud thunk. "Ouch!"

"Ready to admit defeat?" Apple looked up at Raven's smirking face and gave her friend a glare.

"Farrah, I need your services." Apple stated looking at Farrah. Using her magic Farrah mended the dress and helped Apple to her feet. "Even if it is a little impractical this type of thing is only suppose to be worn at formal occasions so it's alright..."

"You mean like the dance, the one event of the year that require elaborate footwork?" Raven asked amused at the way that Apple's features froze up. "Well maybe Faybelle would like it, be a shame to let all of that fabric go to waste." Farrah stated letting out a sad sigh at the thought of all of her work going up in smoke.

"So she did order a entire entire customized Evil Queen wardrobe just for me?" Raven asked looking at Farrah with a horrified expression.

"It was before the school year started, she wanted to surprise you and I tried to warn her." Farrah stated shrugging her shoulders.

"Hold on now! Just because this is a little bit impractical doesn't mean that the whole thing is a bust!" Apple stated snapping back to reality, surely there had to be a single piece of fabric in this area that was suitable for Raven.

"I won't wear anything that I'm gonna trip over, get heat stroke from because you piled on too much fabric, or be immediately accused of being evil just because I'm wearing it." Raven stated in a uncompromising tone of voice.

After Farrah used her clothing knack to get Apple out of the dress she made Apple got dressed in the clothes she came in for, Giving Raven the chance to talk to Farrah alone for a while.

"So am I the only one to notice something strange going on with our classmates?" Raven asked looking at the shorter fairy.

"You mean like with Duchess? Yah I noticed. Correct me if I'm wrong but isn't she suppose to get cursed into a swan _after_ her story starts?" Farrah asked scratching her chin. "She isn't the only one either. Hopper turned himself into a frog just trying to ask me for a eraser the other day."

"Something wrong is going on here Farrah, we need to look into this." Raven stated in a serious tone of voice. "I'll keep to the library, keep researching what is going on, do you think that you can figure out if anyone else is suffering through fairy tale curses?" Raven asked looking at Farrah questioningly. "I only ask because..."

"Because you'd just be accused of being the one who cursed them. I get it, I mean I don't get along with the people of my homeland either." Farrah stated recalling some of the biting remarks her family gets for being the 'pets' of a family of human nobles.

After Farrah tearfully had to give up on many of the outfits designed and made by her for Raven at Apple's request they eventually found something that met Raven's bare minimum requirements. While Raven was in the changing room fitting herself into a black velvet shirt Apple was looking in on her from above, Raven's bare back to her with numerous scares sprawled over her back. The scars in question weren't just scars, they had a pattern, like a language she couldn't recognize.

"It's rude to stare yah know Apple." Raven stated her gift of eighth sense kicking in.

"Oh uh sorry." Apple apologized looking down wearily.

"Do they hurt?" Raven didn't respond. Apple assumed that it was difficult topic for her, anything having anything do to with that many scars had to be. "I understand if you don't..." But then Raven started coughing. "Raven?" Apple rushed inside the stall and caught Raven as she fell, her face bright red and filled with welts. "Oh my gosh! Farrah she's having an allergic-reaction-help-me-get-her-out-of-these-clothes!" After Raven's near miss Farrah used her clothing knack to rip her out of the clothes she was wearing and Nevermore grabbed her before taking back off to the school's infirmary, nearly burning the department store down along the way.

* * *

A heavily depressed Apple was sitting outside of the infirmary her face buried into her knees as she was on the verge of tears. Farrah was doing her best to comfort her, not too much success.

"Apple!" Briar and Blondie rushed over, having already received Apple's panic induced text.

"Farrah!" Ashlyn wasn't far behind them, though she had come for slightly different reasons. "What happened!? Why was there a dragon tearing apart your boutique earlier?"

"She burned all the black velvet too." Farrah stated looking a touch spiteful. "Apple, the next time you ask me to make a wardrobe for someone, firstly make sure that person actually likes the clothes you're getting me to make, secondly make sure they'll not allergic, and third make sure that they aren't carrying a dragon around in their purse."

"Raven? All this hullabaloo was for Raven?" Ashlyn asked looking around at the unpleasant faces.

"Gotta admit." Faybelle stated walking into the waiting room, accompanied by Ramona. "After all the stuff she went through and she nearly gets done in by poorly thought out fashion schemes. It would be funny if Raven's butt wasn't on the line."

"If I can interrupt." Cat-Eye stated walking out of Raven's room with a clip board in hand. "Miss Queen's rash has cleared up, you all can go in to see her now." Apple was the first one inside, immediately she rushed inside and bowed before Raven her nose nearly touching the ground.

"I'M SORRY RAVEN!"

"Apple?" Raven cocked a confused brow at Apple who was prostrating on the floor. "I SWEAR I'LL NEVER MAKE YOU WEAR ANYTHING THAT DOESN'T MAKE YOU COMFORTABLE EVER AGAIN!"

"Apple calm down!" Raven stated as Nevermore picked Apple up and put her on the bed with her. "Does somebody know what happened?"

"Apparently you're allergic to black velvet." Farrah stated prompting confusion from both Faybelle, Ramona and Raven.

"I am?" Raven asked a look of non-sense on her features.

"You aren't?" Apple asked blatant confusion on her features.

"No." Raven replied flatly.

"The first magic cloak she ever got was made out of black Velvet if she was allergic to the stuff then we would have found out long ago." Faybelle stated her features turning into a scowl.

"Which means somebody is trying to kill me again." Raven stated turning her attention to Farrah who could only gulp in response. "Someone needs to get the Headmaster."

* * *

Later that evening, Apple and Farrah were sitting in the Headmaster's office who was reviewing the information from the case.

"According to the tests being run by the fire inspectors, the ashes contain traces of a poison called mage pain." The Headmaster stated prompting a look of horror to cross Farrah's features.

"Mage pain! Headmaster I swear that if I had known...!" The Headmaster calmed Farrah done with his hand.

"I know it wasn't you Farrah." Milton stated prompting Farrah to calm down a bit from her panic attack.

"Uh what's Mage Pain?" Apple asked feeling like something was going on that she didn't know about.

"Mage Pain is a poison that was particularly favored by witch hunters which causes a magical being's own energy to become toxic to them." Milton explained, his neutral face hiding eyes that burned with rage. "To cure it you'd need three things, a large amount of magical energy, to neutralize as much of the poison as possible, royal blood with their strong resistance to toxins, and Dwarfen Immortels to clean the toxin out of their system." Two of these things Raven had already, Dwarfen Immortels is the key ingredient in the epi-pens used in the infirmary and which were injected into Raven.

"My God! My brother delivered those to the store this morning!" Farrah stated looking like she was gonna be sick.

"Which is how we know that you weren't the ones to do it, just being around Mage Pain is dangerous for magical folk. Neither you nor your family could have done this without getting poisoned yourselves." The Headmaster stated his mind mentally assembling the pieces of the puzzle together. "Which also means that no one could have poisoned the fabric before the clothes were made either. So after then. When did work on this product finish?"

"A couple month's ago, Apple here commissioned the entire thing for Raven's use." Farrah commented pointing to Apple.

"Damn overprotective dragon, we might have gotten more evidence of what was happening is she hadn't torched the store." The Headmaster stated before giving his desk a frustrated slap of his hand. "Who knew about this?" The Headmaster asked cocking a suspicious brow at Apple. "Be very certain, even the smallest of details can be important to our investigation, whatever information you can remember."

"I don't know! Lots of people! I was asking all around Mom's court, the servants, the town people looking for ideas for gifts to get Raven!" Apple snapped in the middle of a panic attack. "Oh God Mother I wore one of those dresses before Raven tried it on! I need to go get a shower before I go back to my room tonight!"

"Go ahead both of you, I imagine both of your nerves are quite frayed after everything you've went through." The Headmaster stated watching the two girls give a curtsy before rushing out of his office.

After that the Headmaster went into his office, where Morgan sat inside of her mirror, reading a book that she found on the school's servers.

"Sorry old man, not interested in hearing you prattle on about how 'sorry you are' and how 'you would've treated me better if you knew I was your daughter.'" Morgan stated as she idly flipped through the pages of the book.

"Someone tried to kill Raven again." At the Headmaster's words the book slammed shut and Morgan's eyes turned red again.

With a wave of her hand Morgan brought up the records from the infirmary where it was revealed that Raven had been poisoned with Mage Pain.

"My, my, my. People do like to poke the sleeping dragon don't they?" Morgan stated calmly, impossibly so in fact, like she was intentionally clamping down on her emotions. "Who did this?"

"They used a poison, mage pain, administered through the skin via poisoned clothing." Morgan cocked a knowing brow having just read the report herself.

"Worst assassins ever." As the Headmaster pointed out earlier, Raven was already virtually immune to the poison, which is the reason why Raven's body only reacted like it was having a allergic reaction. On top of that the method they used put so very little in her system. "They couldn't have done a worst job if they tried." Morgan stated almost amused, almost.

"Precisely, I believe they weren't trying." That surprised Morgan. "Some body, who does not want your daughter dead, is trying to provoke you into doing what you usually do and go wipe someone out! Would you like to help me find the individuals responsible?" The Headmaster asked looking at Morgan suspiciously.

"So now you're gonna pretend that you care? Like the sixteen years I spent without a father I spent with you and my mother in one big happy family instead? Like the four years of Hell I went through that you could have prevented never happened? Like I wasn't driven so bat shit crazy that I had to drop out of this god forsaken nightmare factory just so that I could spend a year locked in the padded cage in Wonderland that my mother threw me in? Like I haven't spent the past seven years trapped in the reflective prison you threw me in?" Morgan recounted, her anger building as her red eyes glared hatefully at the Headmaster.

"I will not ignore the wrongs that I have done to you, but this is not about you, this is about your daughter! Are you really so busy playing the victim in this affair that you're willing to leave her to whatever game she has been caught in as at best a disposable pawn and at worst the objective of the enemy to defeat?" Milton asked, his tone of voice calm and reasonable, his argument sound.

"Well done." Morgan clapped her hands together, her eyes having turned a approving purple. "If you used that tone of voice with me as a child I might have actually believed you to be the calm reasonable voice of neutrality that you claim that you are." Saying that, Morgan leaned back in her chair and steepled her hands together, smirking at the Headmaster. "So let. Me. Out!"

"I can't." Milton stated in a sad tone of voice. "You know I can't."

"Hmm. I guess that the lesson you spent so much time beating into me still stands." Shrugging he shoulders Morgan waved her hand over the mirror causing it to fog over as she left behind some final words before disappearing. "I am on my own. Always have been, and always will be."

* * *

 **Review Section** :

Guest: That she is. That she will. I intend to thank you. That she does. And I intend to.

DJ: Eh easy mistake. Once again world building, and world building in the context of story telling, so it's done properly.

Zwei Eis: Funny how the people who actually live there seems like the strange ones, you'd think a school that brainwashes impressionable young children into thinking their fairy tale characters was abnormal.

Wade: You were saying?


	20. Chapter 20

**Author's Note** : Sorry for not leaving a note, didn't mean to do that. Read, Review, Favorite and Enjoy!

 **Amended Author's Note** : Allow me to make this clear, I do not condone the violent destruction of a person's mind by anyone, nor have I ever shown as much in any story I have done. The apparent turning of a person's hair color from fear is a documented but rare condition in spite of what cartoons lead you to believe, it does not mean that the person has been tortured, simply terrified into submission.

* * *

Chapter 20: Let's go on a Field Trip Dark Lord

After getting over her brush with poisonous fashion choices Raven was back to the girl's dorm by Nevermore and Apple, spotting Mira as she was finishing up replacing the door hinges leading into the Girl's common room.

"Ugh. Do I want to know?" Apple asked looking at Mira confused.

"These door hinges are inadequate." Mira stated holding up the hinges she had taken off of the door earlier.

"Ah... Okay. Why?" Apple asked even more confused.

"Ask Cardea." Mira stated as she got up from her knees after finishing with the Door Hinges.

"Who?" Apple asked looking confused.

"Goddess of doorways." Raven explained pointing to the door hinges that had something etched into them. "Her symbol is the Door hinge, she offers protection against those who need permission to reek havoc. Basically it's a deterrent against uninvited guests."

"Meaning if anyone gets in here to try something against Raven, they need permission from someone who already lives here first." Mira stated as she prepared to leave for elsewhere in the building. "Now if you excuse me, I have to install more hinges in the back door of the Dorm."

"Wait, how do you know that the hinges work?" Apple asked looking at Mira concerned.

"Observe subject A." Mira stated gesturing to the doorway.

"Hey Mira!" Daring Charming stated waving his hand through the air, his hair messed up. "I was Wondering if you coul-BVVVVVV!" Upon putting one foot through the Doorway Daring received a large electrical shock that caused his hair to stick up straight in the air. "PAH!" After comically letting smoke out through his mouth Daring fell over backwards and collapsed on his back.

"DARING!" Apple immediately rushed over and started fretting over her Fiance.

"Now if you excuse me, my work awaits me." Giving the two royals a curtsy Mira left for other parts of the building.

"Apple, help me get him inside." Raven stated grabbing hold of Daring by his legs.

"Wait Raven if you bring him through the door again..." He would get shocked again, that's what Apple wanted to say, but Raven was able to drag him inside without issue. "Wha?" Apple asked looking slack jawed and confused.

"He's invited now Apple. Now help me get him on the couch." Leaving Apple utterly confused, the two girls moved Daring onto the couch, Raven used some of her magic to straighten out Daring's hair.

"I know that Mira's trying to be protective and all that, but people are gonna get hurt if they walk into that." Apple stated looking nervously at the door that had been wired by Mira.

"What that? That wouldn't seriously hurt anyone." Raven stated pointing at the door with her thumb. "It's meant to be a deterrent against intruders, a sort of stay away spell. Which is probably the reason why Mira's wiring both ends." In truth Raven saw into Mira's sack, there were a lot more hinges made up than for just two doors, it's entirely possible she intends to rig the entire dormitory that way, if not the entire campus. "In any case we should probably go and check our mail, after that I do need to go shopping for more potion supplies." Even though Raven said that, it soon became apparent that it wouldn't be necessary, as upon walking into the mail room the two girls were greeted by the sight of a huge crate waiting next to Raven's Mail slot, enchantments around it so that only it's intended recipient would receive it.

"What the...?" While Apple looked confused Raven merely loaded the crate onto a trolly and with Nevermore's aid moved it out of the mail room.

"It has a diplomatic seal from my home land." Raven stated pointing at the Potion and Hoe symbol on the box. "It's from my Dad."

"Wait...!" Apple was only more confused by the second. "That's from your Dad?"

"More accurately it's from the Goblin Merchant's guild that serves directly under the crown. The hoe and Potion symbol represents a union of mages and farmers." As Raven explained this she arrived outside of her room and Nevermore tore the lid off of the crate with her claws.

"That's the same symbol I saw on the merchant stalls that the servants always bought food from." Apple stated in surprise pointing at the box.

"Hmm. Looks like a good hall this time." Raven stated looking down at the assembly of nick knacks inside the crate.

"What are they?" Apple asked tossing her own mail carelessly on the bed.

"Alchemy ingredients. Farmers all over my homeland trying to get in good with my family sends them to me all the time. Well lets have a look shall we." Firstly Raven picked up a vial of Gold colored leaves and opened it to reveal the gold colored Maple Leaves. "This is Gold Leaf!"

"Is that good?" Apple asked looking at the leaf with curiosity.

"It's nearly extinct is what it is! Ever heard of the phrase money doesn't grow on trees?" Raven asked prompting Apple to shrug her shoulders. "Well it use to. Primitive mage communities use to use this stuff in place of paper currency, as a result it nearly went extinct." Raven went over to her stationary and set to work. "I need to tell Dad about this!"

"Maybe you should look at the rest of the things in the crate first?" Apple asked pointing to the crate. "I mean these look awfully pretty." Apple stated picking up a jar full of what looked like jewels.

"It can't be..." Raven went back over to Apple and took the jar from her hands, opened it, picked up one of the jewels, and crunched it in two in her mouth. "Jewel nuts!"

"Jewel nuts?" Apple asked in confusion at the jewel like thing that Raven was just eating.

"It's a type of nut that was mistaken for a jewel back in the days where people didn't understand where they really came from, I thought they were picked to extinction by the jewelry department!" While Raven gushed over the contents of the crate Apple plucked a letter addressed to Raven from inside. Handing the letter to Raven, she opened it and looked inside. "'Raven my daughter, A farming community recently made a delivery of a large number of suspicious goods, as such I have taken the liberty of gifting a generous sampling of goods to you for inspection. If can please confirm the quality and authenticity of the goods, we will then grant these individuals a favorable trade negotiation, and you'll be expected to visit in person as well.'" Raven read dryly from the letter.

"You don't think that...?" Apple stated protectively hugging Raven around her waist.

"That somebody has managed to cultivate extremely rare magical herbs that demand the immediate and prompt attention of the public to ensure that they are properly looked after?" Raven asked in a tone of voice that was more of statement of fact. "Yes, I am going, trap or no." It was at that point in time that Raven spotted Mira replacing the hinges on her door. "Besides, I think Mira needs the opportunity to do some renovations." Raven commented prompting Apple to agree.

* * *

The Headmaster was looking at the report given to him by Doctor Cat-Eye concerning the dwarf prisoners. After browsing the notes for a while Milton unceremoniously dropped the paper on his desk.

"English, and use small words." Milton stated making it clear that he did not understand the complicated medical terms inside.

"Marie Antoinette Syndrome refers to a condition where people's hair spontaneously turns white." Cat-Eye explained cleaning his glasses and blinking his namesake. "It was named for a noble who..." Milton held up his hand for the doctor to stop talking, his glare showed that he wasn't interested in the history of the condition. "Right. It's a rare condition, not entirely well documented, but it's thought to be caused be a combination either/of sorrow and fear, but also fits of rage, extreme amounts of stress and unwelcome or unexpected news."

"So in other words..." Milton asked quickly reaching his own conclusions.

"It was likely brought on by being trapped in the same room for a prolonged period of time with the immensely scary woman who can snap her fingers and snap their necks and who had made it very clear that she despises their entire species and them specifically especially." Cat-Eye stated in a monotone voice. "Were they tortured? Broken bones, severe bruising, nothing that would kill them. Just terrified."

"They said Morgan showed them something." Milton stated narrowing a glare.

"Darkness they called it." Cat-Eye stated putting his sun glasses back on his face. "I remember. So what?"

"Morgan stated she showed them what they were dealing with." Milton stated scratching his chin in deep thought.

* * *

That night Raven did a extensive inventory of the potion ingredients, not only confirming that they were the genuine article, but also their alchemical properties. Word had spread around campus and many of Raven's fellow witches like Ginger or the fairies like Faybelle and Farrah were asking Raven about the extremely rare things that she had in her position. Professor Rumpelstiltskin made a few not so polite inquires, and every night leading up to the weekend Apple and Raven heard the sound of electrical buzzing and screaming and come morning the diminutive professor would be chard black and glaring intensive hatred at Raven.

* * *

"Honestly who does he think he is! Trying to break into the girl's dorm, our room, in the middle of the night like some perverted boy on a pantie raid!" Apple snapped as she led Raven through book end.

"Apple, you might be taking this a bit personally..." Raven commented doing her best to suppress the aura of blood lust coming off of Apple.

"Damn right I'm taking this personally!" Apple snapped accusingly pointing her finger at Raven. "That little ghoul has tried to break into our room every night for the past three days and I'm sick of it! First thing when we get back I'm calling my mother to get rid of that blighted little menace!"

"Well, he has been on the teaching staff the longest, he was working here even before the Headmaster's time." Raven stated still trying to keep Apple calm.

"He was hired by the Headmaster's father?" Apple asked cocking a suspicious brow at Raven.

"Yah. That's what my Baba said, usually in the same sentence that she would tell me never to listen to a word that he said." Raven stated as she noticed that her words seemed to have made Apple's blood lust intensify. "Apple, are you okay?" Raven asked looking at Apple who looked thoroughly terrifying right now.

"As fine as can be Raven!" Apple stated donning her best princess smile, like a chocolate fudge cake that had been poisoned with Cyanide.

"Come on, we need to get you away from the school for a while." As Raven was saying that, she had noticed a crowd had formed around the mirror station. "Ginger, Faybelle, Farrah, Daring, Dexter, Mira, Blondie, Mrs. Yaga, what are you all doing here?" Raven asked the individuals in question who had gathered outside of the Mirror station.

"You flaunt super rare potion ingredients around campus, drop that you and Apple heading off to some obscure backwoods shack in the middle of no where to get more, and you honestly expected no one to show up to join you?" Faybelle asked a incredulous look on her features.

"Obviously I can't allow such a large number of students to leave the campus grounds unsupervised." Baba stated in a tone of voice which should be read as 'yes I'm coming this is a once in a life time opportunity!'

"Hello Ever After High!" Blonde said into her Mirror Pad. "Blonde Lockes here with the hexclusive on the super rare potion and alchemy ingredients that have recently entered the campus!"

"Until such a time where people stop taking shots at you, you will not leave my line of sight." Mira stated her glasses producing a blinding glint as she adjusted them. "Since I can't rely on the school's network of Mirror's towards this end, I've already taken the liberty of recruiting extra aid from the heroics class." Mira stated indicating Dexter and Daring. "It's the least they can do for making your dragon waste her time." Nevermore let out a agreeing growl from her shrunken form in Raven's bag.

"But of course!" Daring snapped his mirror shut like some invisible cue had been given and struck a pose. "It is the duty of heroic knights to escort hel..." Dexter at once reached over and grabbed Daring lips and pulled him over.

"If you wish to return from that farm alive, then stick your nose back into your mirror and do not finish that sentence." Dexter stated spotting the murderous glare Faybelle was shooting his brother.

Releasing Daring with a cartoonish smack of his lips Dexter ended up leading the group through the Mirror portal.

* * *

They arrived in a area in the woods, Apple making thanks that she bought proper galoshes from Ashlyn when she went to pick up new sneakers for Raven the other day. Faybelle and Farrah made use of their wings to fly while Baba made use of one of her carpets, Raven and Blonde was riding on Nevermore's back while Ginger also made use of proper footwear.

"So Raven! What can you tell me about this area!?" Blonde stated angling her Mirror pad to have a clear view of both her's and Raven's faces.

"Well, there was a recent inheritance of the lands in this area, following the sudden death of local lord. After that his heir adopted a friendlier policy with Riordan, and the merchants guild from my homeland was able to set up shop here. Since then mage Farmers from my homeland have moved in with them, they found seeds that had been preserved inside of one of the chambers of the castle of certain extinct flora, so thus we find ourselves here today." Raven explained as the group entered the town.

Many members of the field trip noticed the familiarity of the town and soon realized that this was the same town that they had invaded getting the organs to fix Raven, if Apple's memory served her that was the same town that Raven's father waltzed through and ripped off the head of the lord before dropping it at her feet. Although Raven wasn't lying, Apple felt like she was skimming over important details.

"Speaking of I should probably get in touch with my auntie while I'm here." Ginger stated before she skipped off through the town.

"Ginger's aunt is here?" Blonde asked giving a questioning look.

"More accurately it is extremely likely that Ginger has a aunt here. Witches live for a long time, have a huge family, and as such it's more of a matter of weighing the odds." Raven watched as Ginger went over and spoke to a little girl roughly half her age on one side of the street.

"That's Ginger's aunt?" Blonde asked with a questioning look.

"That's Ginger's aunt." Raven stated in a understanding tone of voice.

"But she's half her age!" Blonde stated looking flabbergasted.

"Yes. Yes she is." Raven stated as if this fact should be obvious. "Oi, that should be the one in charge now." To Raven's statement, Blonde directed her mirror pad to a woman who was leaning on the castle gates smoking, much to the visible exasperation of her attendants.

"That's the woman whose in charge?" Blonde asked in disbelief.

"Aha. Her picture was in that diplomatic parcel Dad sent me." Raven explained casually.

"Not to sound rude but she looks like a ahh..." Blonde stated trying to find the right words for this situation.

"A working girl?" Raven asked cocking a brow at Blonde.

"She does have the right atmosphere about her." Blonde admitted that she agreed with Raven's blunt assessment.

"That's because she is." Raven stated her voice full of honesty.

"Say wha...?" Blonde stated in a stunned tone of voice. "But didn't you say that she's the heiress to the former lord's estate?"

"Well, you have to understand the old man didn't have any legitimate heirs, he just someone who spent a lot of time in local whore house and thus he acquire many, many illegitimate heirs. So of various candidates we simply went with the oldest and most qualified to run a estate." Raven explained shrugging her shoulders.

"Which kind of puts all the things that the old lord had me do to him into a new perspective." The current Lady of the Lands explained walking over to the group.

"Hello there Lady Stella, pleasure to meet you at last." Raven stated getting off of Nevermore's back and giving the newly identified lady a curtsy.

"You must be The Dark Lord Hraban Konigin, pleasure." To Stella's greeting Blonde and Dexter could only scrunch up in confusion, Daring on the other hand was too busy looking into his mirror.

"Raven's name translates differently in her home land remember?" Apple whispered into Blonde's ear, though she still seemed stunned by the recent train of information, her reporter instincts chaining together the information she had received and coming to disturbing conclusions in the process.

"You don't seem to have much of a noble wardrobe if you don't mind me saying." Raven thumbed Farrah behind her. "This lady here works as a tailor, I'd be happy to loan her to you for a while if you want."

"Fine." One of Stella's attendants motioned for Farrah to follow him into the castle proper. "In the mean time you want to check on the little ones for me?"

"It will be my pleasure." Raven stated giving the woman bow before hopping on Nevermore's back again and going in the direction Stella had indicated.

Once out in the fields of familiar looking plants the group spotted the work of the Wolves who were plowing the fields in place of Cattle, and the use of skeletal like corpses who were harvesting the plants in the place of living breathing humans.

"Raven, are those..." Blonde interrupted Dexter's question by leaning over and puking behind him, Daring finally looked away from his mirror and looked at what was in front of him and promptly fainted.

"Humans, a few undead and..." Even though Faybelle said that Ginger had to look away and plug her nose. "Et tu Ginger?" Faybelle asked cocking a brow at the witch who looked repulsed.

"Sorry but my nose is very sensitive and they smell." Ginger stated her hand over her nose.

"Which again leads to the question of why corpses are attending your fields?" Dexter stated a handkerchief over his nose.

"Well, I know that this may look like a bad practice, but there is a lot of legal and moral stuff going on too." Raven explained, before she noticed the disgusted look on Apple's face, she was not prepared for a smell like this either.

"We have a contract with the farmers, who all died of natural causes by the way, that allows us to use their corpses for farming, while their family is cared for financially and emotionally in the mean time. I know that it seems like a despicable practice to you guys, and I agree with you, but it's how things are done with Scar Backs." Mira explained shrugging her shoulders.

"Wait Mira, you guys did this?" Blonde asked pointing the scene that made her vomit.

"Like I said not my idea, but one of our tenants is that 'the dead should be allowed to help the living' where did you think we got the new origin for Raven from?" To Mira's question, the others could only give a guilty look.

"Well come on, Blonde's probably going to want to interview someone." Raven stated leading the group away from the morbid little scene.

* * *

 **Review Section** :

Jascmaster: Hmm. Didn't think of that.

DJ: Don't worry, she's coming. Poking the sleeping dragon is a Riordan phrase, do to the general strength and durability of dragons it's considered better to just let them sleep instead of trying to attack them, of which it's considered to be the same as poking them with a stick. Course since people associate the royal family with dragons too it's a phrase that's used to refer to them too. In this case Morgan is commenting as if people are deliberately trying to get her to kill them.

Zwei Eis: That they are.

Wade: Raven's already got her own wardrobe, all of which is filled with practical clothing that she won't trip over, be accused of playing Evil Queen or enter anaphylactic shock from.


	21. Chapter 21

**Author's Note** : Nothing to say Right Now. Read, Review, Favorite and Enjoy!

* * *

Chapter 21: Let's Go To a Farm Goldilocks

The group had moved away from the farms and all the foul smells that entailed and were now located at the branch office of the Goblin's merchants guild, which they noted was not only being run by goblins, but orcs, ogres, trolls, and a variety of other unpleasant things that no one cared to ask what were. Blondie had been seated in a chair across from a well dressed goblin who was sitting on a stack of important looking books behind a desk.

"So Mr..." Blondie trailed off in a tone that invited the goblin to introduce himself.

"Styx. Mr. Styx." The Goblin stated in a raspy voice.

"Mr. Styx. I've gotta ask: why do you have corpses working the fields?" Blondie asked in a slightly terrified tone of voice.

"Corpse cheap." Was the goblin's simple reply.

"Corpse... Cheap." Blondie stated in a slightly disbelieving tone of voice.

"Corpse rented from family for same ware as living. Don't need time off, don't need food, don't need sleep. Can work day and night. Huge profit." The goblin explained listing points off of his fingers.

"Right." Blondie commented scribbling down notes. "So farm work, what made you go into that particular field of work?"

"Huge profit. Renewable resource, everyone needs food." Nodding her head Blondie recalled what Raven told her about goblins, intelligent but greedy, but also practical, long lived, long term goals in mind, properly looks after their clientele, good allies that Raven's family has made. While Blondie continued to talk shop with Styx Raven had went to see Apple who was sitting by a well in the town.

"You alright?" Raven asked bringing a cup of something warm looking over to Apple.

"Fine? Why do you ask?" Apple asked looking at Raven suspiciously while taking the cup of hot liquid.

"Not a lot of people outside of Riordan are use to seeing corpses get up and move around." Raven explained sitting next to Apple.

"A few years ago... after Wonderland my mom started taking me out to watch people hang." Apple's hands tightened around her to go cup as she sounded a important revelation. "My mother wanted me use to the sight of death, knew war was coming, knew that it could happen any day now."

"You've been talking to Faybelle too much." Raven stated letting out a sigh.

"Is she wrong?" Apple asked in a serious sounding tone of voice.

"Between Riordan and Ever After? No. Not that I know of. Not without greater reason then a high school grudge between our mothers." Raven stated looking up to the sky.

"I sense a but Raven." Apple's glare carved a trench through Raven. "My classmates told me about the magic power that was coming off of you when my mother visited me." Although Apple said told 'over heard them gossiping about how the 'Evil Queen' was going to curse the queen of Ever After to Death' and laughing about it like such a topic that involved two of the most important people in her life was funny would be more accurate. "I'm not naive enough not to see how it works, how it goes up when you get mad, or sad, or depressed or when something about your mother pops up. Everyone saw how you reacted to my mother Raven. What happened!?" Apple demanded to know, needed to know, if she was ever to have a good night's sleep again.

"Sometimes it's difficult living with a smart roommate." Raven let out a low whistle looked up into the sky as she thought about what to do next. "If you asked me, I would just make it seem like your mother is the only one at fault. If you asked her, she would either deny it, or try to push the blame somewhere else. You'd get a similar answers from other people who were involved, the old staff at the school, the headmaster, everyone either sided with your mother or mine and their views are shaped by that. If you want someone who'd be neutral about it... then ask my grandma Jadis." Raven explained sounding reluctant.

( _25%_ )

"Alright fair enough." Apple stated happy to get some kind of answer out of the situation. "So what do we do now?"

"Propaganda mostly." Raven stated giving a disinterested shrug of her shoulders.

"Propaganda?" Apple quoted cocking a suspicious brow.

* * *

Raven went down to the fields, the crude zombies had been called off by the necromancer from the Scar Backs while Raven sunk her foot into the ground, Nevermore had flown into the forest with Apple and used her to lure in a large number of different magical creatures, including a large swarm of grey with blue striped honey bees.

"I know that it doesn't look like it, but animal feces fertilizes the ground, making it easier for plants to grow on it." Raven explained as she looked at Blondie's mirror phone. "People might eat the plants for food, but plants need food to grow too. It doesn't just have to be feces, there's also the parts of plants and animals that you don't eat as well, grinding them up and mixing them into the soil works too." Having finished explaining that Raven looked over the field and saw that the animals were starting to leave again, having already left their 'leavings' behind. "Under normal circumstances the crops would take a few months to grow, but if you add a little bit of magic." Saying that Raven closed her eyes and concentrated, oh yes there was a great many things that were bothering her lately, just taking a moment to reflect upon her time at School filled Raven with power. ( _0%_ ) Power that immediately flowed from her into the soil, seed that had been spread over the ground grew out and into a variety of odd looking crops. Bushes with small jewels, White tomato plants with blue lumpy juice coming out of it, gold colored Parsley, and more miss mashed valuable looking things started to grow out of the ground. "Then you can gently persuade the plants to grow faster." Raven stated tiredly before falling on her behind. "After that it's important to introduce pollinators into the area. Billywigs feed off of magic, their venom helps in production of magical power, though it also drives magi insane."

A small part of Raven found it redundant to explain what should be common knowledge about good farming practices. Then she realized it wasn't that common outside of Riordan, Eighty percent and growing of food stuffs, magical ingredients, and other things related to plants on the continent came out of Riordan. But it wasn't because Riordan was becoming more productive all of a sudden. It was also because the other nations were loosing fertile land as well.

"Tell me about it." Faybelle stated created a barrier around her person to keep the blasted bugs away from her.

"Wow they look so pretty!" Blondie commented making sure to catch as much of the plot of land with odd looking plants and mutant magical bees swarming about as she could with her Mirror Pad.

"The people who over plucked them to extinction would agree." Raven commented prompting Blondie to look at her confused. "Mira's people found a chest full of dried seeds of a bunch of extinct flora from inside of the old lord's castle. It seems that it was part of the tax collection a couple hundred years ago." Lords take a cut of production every year as part of their tax collection, the idea was suppose to be that the amount they take rises and drops with the production of the products, instead they took however much they needed with the amount depending upon how much they over spent during that occasion, not how much was actually produced. The issue here was that without seed to replace what was harvested the season past then you can't grow anything for the next season. Unfortunately it wasn't a practice that had fallen out of disuse. Not that Raven was going into that, if it sounded too much like she was trying to lecture them the people might stop listening to her. "People often assume that my family are hoarding food for ourselves or for profit because we put a large trade tax on outgoing goods. In reality we're trying to discourage merchants from coming here and stealing all our food because no one knows how to grow their own." Raven explained some of her energy back but still breathing a tired sigh. "Only the major merchant's guilds can afford to do business with us, even then it's only with the ones that know enough about how things work to understand that there's a limit to how much we can sell to them."

"Like the Goblin's Merchant's Guild." Blondie stated nodding her head in understanding.

"Correct, we've tried to explain this to the others a few times before, but most kingdoms aren't willing to listen to the Family that's made their name on being 'Evil' and those that do get boycotted by the others." Raven explained looking very displeased at the moment.

"Sounds like you've got it rough." Blondie stated looking sadly at Raven.

"It's irritating when people don't listen. I will admit." Raven looked down at Blondie's and noticed that it wasn't on. "You stopped the broadcast?"

"I stopped recording. Sometimes it's better to get a rough cut of things first, like not telling people that you've got their dead relatives working your fields for you. Besides, I can't connect to the mirror net from out here." Blondie stated sounding rather annoyed.

"Yah I know. I would prefer to use golems to work the fields instead. But they don't last long working the fields twenty four seven, the corpses of Magi much longer. The magic that goes through their bodies when they were alive acts sorta like a... preservative if you will, on top of which since they were spell casters they're reanimated as a type of undead called a arcane horror, sort of like a proxy server for mages, which also means that they have the added benefit of filling the fields with magical energy as well." To Raven's explanation Blondie nodded her head in understanding.

"So those are undead mages?" Blondie asked gesturing to the skeletons who were now moving into the fields.

"No those are regular Zombies. They don't have any mage corpses to spare but they do have regular people's corpses." Raven explained the look on her forcibly calm features implied that she still wasn't entirely okay with this practice at the moment.

"So then what were they eating before?" To Blondie's question Raven cocked a curious brow. "I know that they haven't been employing your home land's farming methods, they haven't been doing trade with you, or their other neighbors who are as dirt broke as they were as far as the old lord is concerned, so the question here is, what have they been eating?"

"Well..." Raven opened her mouth to answer only no noise came out. Raven couldn't think of a proper answer for Blondie, the most that she could think of would be that they were scraping by on the bare minimum amount of food, except that even when the lands were under the control of the Old Lord a couple of weeks ago they looked just as healthy and well fed as they do now, which is to say very healthy. "...They couldn't."

"What?" Blondie gaped her reporter instincts on Red Alert. "There is no logical way that they can be alive right now." Nervously, Blondie found her gaze drifting over to the fields where undead beings were retaking the field.

"You don't think that..." Blondie commented looking at the skeletons in the field.

"No." Raven watched as Nevermore, with Apple sitting on her back, landed in front of a group of people from the village as Apple conversed congenially with them. "Nevermore's got a good nose too, she's on edge around the sight of corpses." Nevermore and Apple walked over to the pair non the wiser.

"Hello! Did you get lots of good footage for Raven?" Apple asked looking quite happy that Raven would be getting some good publicity.

"Uh yah but..."

"We want to get some of the Silos too." Raven stated putting a arm around Apple's shoulders and pointing at the nearby barns.

"Really? They don't look like there in too good shape." Apple stated observing the barns and store rooms that even at a distance were in a obvious state of disrepair.

"That's part of the idea. The Troll's Workers union wants some publicity too." Raven explained as she got on Nevermore's back. "So we need before and after shots."

The three girls on the back of the dragon flew over to the ruined building where a group of trolls were relaxing. One that appeared to be slighter better groomed then the others slapped another over the back of his head as Raven and the others arrived whipping them into a frenzy as they quickly made themselves look busy.

"Miss Konigan." The Troll foreman stated giving Raven a polite bow in the process.

"Konigan?" Blondie questioned cocking a suspicious brow at Raven who already got off of Nevermore and walked up to the troll.

"Raven's name translates differently in her homeland." Apple mentioned casually. "Speaking of we need to talk."

"Guys, I need to set some things up on my mirror pad! Can you wait a few minuets?" To Blondie's question the troll foreman shooed her away.

"What were you talking about with Raven earlier?" Apple asked cocking a suspicious brow at her friend.

"I ah..." Blondie nervously stuttered caught between her best friend and someone who could be very dangerous if she wants to be. "How do I put this?"

* * *

 **Review Section** :

DJ: I have one coming up, but it won't be for a few chapters I'm afraid.

Guest: As is the way things role. And Patience, Apple will embrace her nerdy four eyed destiny soon enough.

Nightraze: Build on it more accurately. We know that each of the Charming families names start with a specific letter, in our trio's case it's D, in another it's C, in a third we have L and so on and so forth. Following that logic to it's natural conclusion there are 26 Charming families, which with a average of 2.3 children equals approximately 60.6 individuals part of the various Charming family branches. Each family in turn has at least one of it's children marry the common stock in order to prevent the families from becoming genetically insufficient and un-viable. At the same time though there is a certain point in time where you eventually realize that something is simply not going to work the way you want it to and trying over and over again isn't going to fix that. But anything's possible. Amazing the power of video editing isn't it? I thought it was good. And yes, yes she was. No she cannot. It's foreshadowing, in order for Raven to be able to solve a huge problem plaguing the school and world at large I must first demonstrate that there is a problem going on. Why thank you, it's hard finding a medium between the insane psychotic lunatic that we know and the loving over protective mother Raven deserves. I have heard of it, didn't see it though. Thanks for saying so, she's basically a original character by this point in time. Having a lot of fun writing it. ;)

Wade: It will not go pear shaped, the pear will be diced, honey glazed, dipped in cinnamon and roasted until golden brown. And yes, that is all delicious and painful as it sounds.


	22. Chapter 22

**Author's Note** : Ah glorious reviews, How I love you. Read, Review, Favorite and Enjoy!

* * *

Chapter 22: Let's Go to the Library Dark Lord

On the border of Riordan, a merchants Caravan had been moving towards a particular village and stopped at a checkpoint, a draw bridge over a steep ravine. A troll who had been below the bridge climbed up and rumbled over to the caravan hammer he used to build the bridge slung over his shoulder. The borders surrounding Riordan was controlled by the Troll Builder's union. Looking around it was easy to tell that Riordan's borders were messy combination of unpleasant creature filled forests and unstable terrain, the first was a natural feature of the 'nation of monsters' the other was a consequence of high level magic spells bombarding invading armies and leaving fissures and craters in their wake. And in that time the trolls made out like bandits, constructing bridges along the messy borders and charging substantial fee for the right to use them or else get smashed. Those who didn't wish to take the bridges had to utilize longer routes filled with unpleasant creatures, an expensive endeavor that only the largest guilds hiring out mercenaries on the continent could afford. Or use the magic mirror network, an expensive endeavor unless you already have the magical power to work the things yourself. Fortunately for the majority of populace these guilds were so large because they were so wide spread and easily affordable, which dispersed the resources and trade that made up Riordan's economy quite nicely. Which is what made the appearance of these dwarfs so disconcerting.

"Grr." They weren't part of the usual guilds, and Dwarfs usual specialty consisted of sharp and pointy things, it would be a different matter if the wagon was empty and was coming to take supplies to Dwemor, but that didn't seem to be the case here. "Halt." The dwarf serving as coachman looked up at the warted tusked face of the troll. "State business or be smashed!" The troll emphasized his point by slamming the business end of his hammer on the ground.

"Dwarf spirits." The Coachman stated indicating the tarp behind him with the barrel like shapes beneath.

"Inspection." Even though he said that, the troll was already smacking his lips. Trolls were notorious for their love of drink, and when Merchants found that they couldn't pay the troll's fine they were often willing to part with a sample of their goods. "What this?"

The troll picked one of the barrels up and shook it, only instead of the slosh of liquid he was greeted by the repeated thunk of a solid object. Confused by this contradictory fact he was caught off guard when the top half of the barrel flipped open and a dwarf crossbowman fired a poison arrow directly into his eye. If the bolt that went deep into the troll's brain didn't kill him, the poison that laced it would.

"Get that bridge down."

There was a lever on the other-side of the gap, easy for the troll to cross without the bridge, but impossible for a caravan. The cross bowman shot a grappling hook at the lever controlling the bridge and yanked it back slamming the bridge down. The cross bow man went back inside his barrel and loaded it back on the caravan, the coachman put the tarp back over it and resumed their trek leaving behind the abandoned corpse of the troll.

* * *

Raven had already given Blondie a speech about the finer points of troll architecture, their slow wits and sluggish appearance might make them look stupid but they actually sunk a lot of thought into their work and in the process created some pretty solid workmanship. Workmanship that Raven and other members of upper management now intended for the largely unemployed farmers to learn, so that they could now go into more profitable enterprises, zombies made for good farmers but they were abysmal at anything that required a actual brain. That said what had Raven's attention is what the trolls were hauling out of the old silos. Rot, rotten wheat, rotten potato, just a bunch of food that had gone bad to the point that it wasn't edible any longer.

"Stinks like piss." One of the trolls commented in usual blunt fashion.

A accurate assessment, but one that left room for questions. There was the story about where the seed for the magical plants came from. Xenophobic lords usually don't hoard magical items inside of their castles, let alone accept them as taxes. What was going on here?

"So they barely harvested any food, and what was harvested was left to rot away to nothing instead of being sold off by old lord?" Something strange was definitely going on here.

"Hey Raven!" Apple leaped onto Raven's back to give her a hug from behind. "I was wondering if you knew where I can get some books on Riordan's wildlife."

"You want to learn about the animals of my homeland?" Raven asked cocking a interested brow at Apple.

"I tried to look it up after the last time we visited but I couldn't find anything." Apple said in a pout.

"That's because they're listed as 'monsters' not 'animals.'" Raven stated sounding quite bitter, which caused Apple to tighten her grip just a touch. "Well those books don't have very much accurate information in them anyway. The Scar Backs will have more information than anyone else."

Explaining this the two girls paid the monks a visit, where they made generous donations to their order and took a look through their library, which since they hadn't moved in yet was little more than several trunks with books stuffed in them.

"Here we go." Raven pulled out a well read book detailing various bits of information about the creatures of Riordan, flipping through the pages Apple could see that it was entirely hand written and detailed various bits of information about different animals ranging from habits, diet and anatomy and arranged with no real rhyme nor reason. Unfortunately for Apple it was in small text and in the locals native tongue, making it doubly difficult to read. "You haven't learned my homeland's tongue have you? If I had some glasses I could enchant them with a translation spell." While Raven started scrounging about for something to work with Apple reluctantly reached into her pocket and pulled out a pair of glasses. Prompting Raven to cock a jeweled brow suspiciously. "You need glasses?"

"They're reading glasses!" Apple exclaimed defensively.

"But you don't use them when you're reading?" Apple pouted to Raven's point, the truth was that Apple was very lucky that she wasn't a witch like Raven. If she was then the overwhelming pressure placed on her to become the picture perfect image of Snow White would have her spitting out spells like the ritual Raven used to summon that Djinn on a daily basis. "Here." Purple light and smoke went over the glasses at a little wave of Raven's finger. "No one will object to enchanted reading glasses. Not only do they translate all of the written languages on the continent, but they also have a enchantment that helps the wearer soak up information like a sponge." Raven explained handing over the glasses with a knowing smile on her face. "My what a monstrous study aid you've acquired, you'll doubtlessly soar in your studies from now on, who knows you'll probably start a trend!"

Apple couldn't help but smile under the praise of Raven, even if it was praise for her glasses, and even if it was praise for the enchantment Raven herself put into them. Still this was the first time that Apple felt good about having to deviate from the Snow White formula, just a little though. The two girls sat down together and Apple opened the first page, immediately absorbing the information facilitated by the glasses.

"Whoa." Information that made Apple dizzy from the strain.

"There are other enchantments that are more efficient, but it requires that the user can keep up with the concentrated stream of information." Raven was quick to provide Apple a shoulder to lean on. "For now just try reading casually, if you want me to ramp up the concentration later just tell me." Raven stated making small magical circles around Apple's glasses. Nodding her head the two girls continued to read through the book.

"They certainly are scary looking." Apple commented looking at the pictures of creatures that were drawn in the least threatening postures possible and still looked like they could rip a grown man in half with nothing but their teeth and claws and occasionally other threatening bits they had sticking out of them. "I can see why people think they're scary, most of these guys look like they would rip you in half if they got the chance."

"They would." Raven stated prompting Apple to scrunch her features up in confusion.

"What? No, I landed Nevermore on this one's antlers!" Apple stated pointing to the picture of the gorilla thing with antlers, which she now learned was called a fiend. "They're sweet hearts all of them!"

"They've been enchanted Apple." Raven stated seriously. "One of the Evil Queens passed, Cassandra I think her name is, released a type of mind control potion into the water that makes it impossible for them to attack the citizens of the land unless attacked first." Apple cocked a confused brow at Raven. "Our land are full of creatures that find humans very tasty, also ones that people like to chop the heads from and put on their walls. My great, great grandma took advantage of that and enlisted them in the army. Basically, anybody trying to cross the boarder carrying weapons or armor are dinner, any body else is okay."

"Security sounds pretty tight." Apple commented looking surprised.

"That doesn't include the uneven terrain and trolls that control all the roads inside." Raven commented casually.

"Wait but if none of the people are allowed to eat the animals then what do you people do for meat?" Being a life long customer of the Goblin Merchants guild Apple knew that they did sell meat, and Raven wasn't exactly a vegetarian either.

"We're allowed to eat animals, just not the dangerous ones." As Raven explained that the ground started to rumble.

Looking outside Apple saw as a huge creature resembling a elephant but with smaller ears and covered in hair walked by, pulling a cart of things that looked like giant scaly chickens and boar the size of a cow.

"I see..." Apple commented watching as what looked like very scary farm animals went by.

"Mammoth, Cockatrice and Boarbatusk. They aren't endangered, and unlike most of the creatures of my home land they aren't cursed either." Apple spun around on Raven's comment and stuttered.

"Cursed!?" Apple asked sounding scared.

"More of Cassnadra Queen's handy work." Raven stated rolling her eyes.

"People from the Neighboring kingdoms favorite hobby was to come here and make trophy mounts out of all the biggest and meanest animals. Cassandra didn't approve, so she cursed all the animals people were hunting, basically you kill, you become." Apple recoiled in Horrified shock.

"I take it Cassandra wasn't known as a very nice lady." Apple commented swallowing her fear.

"She's known for liking animals." Raven commented letting out a sigh.

"Known, liking? You mean to say that she's still around?" Apple asked recoiling in horrified shock.

"Witches can live up to a thousand years Apple, my own Baba is barely considered a adult." Apple nodded her head in understanding, once again Raven's family had proved why people are so scared of them.

* * *

It wasn't like the system was perfect, there were ways getting past the animals, concealing the weapons, dressing in civilian clothing, and of course incapacitating the animals instead of killing them. As a certain group of dwarfs had had just finished doing, releasing the contents of a wine barrel filled with sleeping potion into a popular watering hole where large and unfriendly animals in the area were known to frequent. With any luck even the dragon would come here for a spell. By nightfall they would be sleeping, and they would be ready with goblin forged armor and goblin forged blades, she would not escape from them this time.

* * *

"Okay guys!" Blondie shouted waltzing back into the church after having finished her recordings. "I've got interviews from the Goblin Merchants guild, footage of the Troll Builders Union, and lots of information from the Scar Backs." Not that Apple took note of Blondie's arrival, nose deep, and nose tipped with reading glasses it should be noted, in what looked like the third Scar Back written text detailing various different creatures of Raven's homeland. "Apple? You're wearing your glasses?" Blondie asked confused recalling how Apple had been teased into a corner the last time she went out in public with her glasses on.

"My enchanted reading glasses that auto translates foreign texts and downloads information into my head at a heightened pace!" Apple beamed a bright look on her features. Ah, Raven's handiwork, that would explain it. "I'm gonna demolish my classes with these things."

"They're really that good?" Blondie asked looking surprised at the already studious Apple having received a proverbial shot in the arm.

"She's read through three ten inch thick books filled to the brim with information in no real particular order. To make any sense of them she'd either have to have them memorized front to back rewrite them in a manner that makes sense." Raven explained handing Blondie one of the books for her to examine.

"Reminds me of the last time I took Humphrey out on a stake out." Blondie stated turning the indecipherable notes side ways. "Is this even Ever After standard?"

"Riordan has it's own language Blondie." Apple reminded not looking away from her book. "It's getting dark out, can you go check on Mrs. Yaga and the boys?" Apple asked leaning into Raven as she started her fourth book.

"Sure..." Blondie stated in a self assured type of way. "I'll leave you two love birds to your books."

* * *

"Ah what pathetic heroes our school is raising." Baba sighed in mock dispair, lounging about in a chair while Dexter and Daring dragged ludicrously large amounts of supplies through a Mirror portal.

"How... did... she... even... buy... all... of... this... stuff!?" Daring wheezed as he carried the supplies on his back.

"Oh it's not for me, my things are over there." Baba stated directing her attention to a large untouched pile of recently bought goods. "What you're carrying over, is everything that little Detention goblin asked me to buy for him while I was over here." Which he paid for using the golden thread he had bullied the students into making for him during the detention and thus she is making him pay ten times the already expensive items cost in order to milk every last strand from him.

"Boys." Mira commented easily carrying a amount that was twice as large as both Dexter's and Daring's combined through the mirror. It was around that time that a Fiend chose to wander out from the woods, and promptly collapse in front of the group. "That isn't good."

* * *

 **Review Section** :

Lelcar: You make a fair point, which is good because I like it when people ask good questions so I can properly explain my reasons. The first thing you have to realize is that the family of the corpse's are being paid handsomely for the indentured servitude of their loved ones. This does two things, firstly it means that the flow of money that was interrupted by said death is now no longer being interrupted. Secondly, now they have the time and cash flow to get a education to get a better job, which in turn means that cash flow will increase in a short amount of time. Thirdly said corpses can't last forever, which means that they'll need either more corpses or hire living people again.

DJ: Your Welcome! Thank You! Patience, just building the mystery up a little bit. Also Jadis will appear in three chapters, I guarantee it!

Guest: Apple isn't going to be the one that needs protection.

Wade: If I told a bunch of backwards medieval people that it was normal to have their loved one's bits and pieces cut out of them so that they could be used as replacement parts for people suffering from organ failure how would you react? Good things are Good things, just need time to see that.


	23. Chapter 23

**Author's Note** : Not much to say this morning, I'm a little distracted and trying to come up with new ideas for a story. Read, Review, Favorite and Enjoy!

* * *

Chapter 23: You're making me angry, Seven Dwarfs

This was not a good thing, that is what Dexter and Daring concluded observing Mira and Baba fussing about over the body of the fallen fiend that had just stumbled out of the woods. From what Dexter could deduce, the fiend was roughly six tons of muscle shaped in the form of one of the deadliest predators in a country that was full of deadly predators, there were very few and far between in terms of what could bring one down. Daring's finely honed combat sense told him that something was definitely not right here, and had already retrieved a golf bag full of all the sharp pointy things he could carry from the nearby armory.

"I'm back what did I miss?" Daring asked as he looked around the area.

"This fiend doesn't have any wounds." Mira stated patting the beast that looked like it was sleeping peacefully.

"Okay... Dex why is that a bad thing?" Daring asked looking very confused.

"If the Fiend wasn't hurt then that means that it wasn't another creature that knocked it out. It consumed something that knocked it out, either eating it or drinking it." Daring's face was not of someone who understood what was just said. "Daring, what kind of predator poisons the local watering hole?" To Dexter's question, Daring's eyes went upwards for a few moments while he thought about it.

"Well... I don't really know a lot about the animals of Riordan, but in that wildlife class we learned about poachers but..." Dexter leveled a knowing glare at Daring. "Oh."

"We should..." Dexter looked to the air and his eyes went wide before he grabbed Daring and pushed him to the ground, as a huge metal bird crashed through the tree tops into the ground, unconscious. "A Stymphalian." Dexter noted with a grim look on his features.

"And since these two don't look like the types that share their food..." Daring noted looking at the two very dangerous looking predatory animals.

"One of us should warn the town about the watering holes, the other should try and track down how many animals have already been captured." Nodding his head to Dexter's instructions Daring looked up to see the two witches that should have already ducked in cover gone. "Where did...?"

"Hmm. Looks like another one's been affected." A man who looked like a farmer planted his pitchfork in front of Daring. "Did you two see a pair of witches here earlier?" The Farmer asked looking down at the two boys who could only nod in response. "So that must be the fiend they were talking about, together with our mammoth that makes three. We should expect to find some more." Making mutterings like a general assessing a potential war zone the farmer left leaving behind two boys stunned.

"How long were we talking?"

* * *

"Shh..." Apple let out a low whistle while she comforted the sick Mammoth, one minuet it was by the lake taking a drink, the next Baba Yaga and Mira stormed off of the path yelling about how they had poachers in the area and the big guy keeled over, the two she suspected were related. "Are poachers a problem around here Raven?"

"Not much of one I will admit." Raven stated jerking as a agitated Nevermore tried to slip out of her grasp and tear something apart. "Down girl! Because of 'the law' most people can't get away with killing the wildlife around here, so they'd have to take them alive, that's the reason why the mammoth and the Fiend that nearly squashed Mira and Mrs. Yaga are only asleep, not dead. They could be trying to sell them as exotic pets, or they might be planning to try to starve them to death, I don't think anyone's tried that before." Raven stated scratching her chin and noted a worried look on Apple's face. "Fortunately curses tend to be very stubborn and will in all likely hood still track down those who are responsible and make sure they suffer any way they can, and then no one will be stupid enough to try this again."

"It's not that. It's Nevermore." Apple explained pointing to the snapping dragon in question. "When people go after her, it actually looks like she's happy about it, like she wants to fight them, but this?" Apple stated gesturing to the dragon again who reciprocated with a snap. "The last time I saw her like this, you were in a hospital bed with your origin thingy cut out. I think she's reacting like this because she thinks you're in danger."

To Apple's explanation Raven looked concerned, she got to her feet but kept a firm grip on Nevermore's harness, Nevermore gets... trigger happy when she's angry.

"The castle is the most fortified position in the area." Raven stated, gone was the concerned pet owner, young ruler on a diplomatic mission, and 'rebel' as some of the students had come to call her behind her back. In Raven's eyes, was a look that Apple always imagined that the Evil Queen would have. "We'll need to use your abilities to figure out how many animals have been taken down, they'll be a lot better in a fight then a bunch of farmers." At that moment a arrow flew out of the bushes and nearly nailed Apple between her eyes, it's path halted dead by Raven snatching it out of the air.

( _90%_ )

Said arrow subsequently died in a ball of black flame before disintegrating into a pile of ash.

"Who did that?" Raven asked a rolling ball of barely contained fury, dark smoke billowing out of her body inside of which Apple could the form of some kind of multiheaded monster snapping at one another. Raven's eye caught sight of movement in the bushes and at the same time she let go of Nevermore's harness. "Dinner time!"

Nevermore took to the air and let down a hail of fire on the bushes and trees setting them aflame. A retaliatory bolt was fired at the dragon and Nevermore responded with more fire. The arrow seemed to absorb the flame into itself before it suddenly went off course and went towards Raven who grabbed it and examined it.

"Goblin forged." Raven stated noting the arrow head still hot with Nevermore's fiery breath and how the arrow seemed intent to soak up as much of the raw power she was giving off as possible. "Apple, get behind me right now!" Apple obediently moved behind Raven, who stomped her foot into the ground and created a protective wall of rock around them. One of their attackers hurled a Grenade over the edge and it was expertly batted away by Nevermore's tail a explosion signalling the end of it's existence. "Stubborn little hair balls aren't they?" Raven commented the black smoke coming off of her in waves.

"Raven! Guh, GUH!" Apple was coughing, taking a look around Raven realized that the bloodlust rolling off of her in waves must be negatively affecting her, on top of which they were locked in a small environment together which was probably exacerbating her symptoms. "We need to get out of here." Raven forced the black colored magic down while she pressed Apple's body to hers. "Hang on tight!" The Magic created a small explosion and shot the two girls high into the air, Raven made use of a barrier to protect themselves from the goblin arrows but it was difficult with the metal greedily devouring her magical power anyway. Luckily it bought all the time that she needed for Nevermore to grab a hold of them and take off through the air. "Apple are you okay?"

"I'm fine, but what are we gonna do about them?" Apple asked pointing down to the dwarfs shooting at them.

( _80%_ )

Magic, lots of magic, too much, too close to a explosion, not here, or with Apple this close.

" _Well, as they say: Go big, or go home!_ "

"Raven, you look like you've got a plan." Apple mentioned looking at the calculating look that was on Raven's features.

"I need you to take control of Nevermore for a minuet, I need to cast a spell." Nodding her head Apple grabbed the reins tied into Nevermore's harness from Raven.

Raven put her hands together, a sphere of magical formula have manifest while muttering a spell. Raven began gesturing with her elbow back to their associates who were intent to hurl sharp pointed objects at them. Apple steered Nevermore on a collision course with the bearded crossbowmen.

( _0%_ )

"Infernus Ardaret!" Yelling that while pushing both of her hands forward, a huge fireball erupted in front of them and crashed into the ground. Almost hatching, the ball of fire exploded, from inside of it was a tall and thin humanoid with goat legs and long goat horns, the fur around his hooves and the long beard coming out of his chin were both on fire.

"Raven, what is that thing?" Apple asked looking at the frankly terrifying display of magic by Raven.

"It's a Ifrit." That did not answer Apple's question. "It's a Genie."

"So it grants wishes like the Gin you summoned the other day?" Apple asked looking down at the very powerful looking thing that Raven as summoned.

"Ah not quite. Ifrit's are good for one thing and one thing only: Destruction." The fire elemental took one look at the irate dwarfs and smiled, he summoned a blade of flame from his person and started landing sweeping attacks on the enemy. Attacks he realized to his immeasurable rage were being absorbed into the Enemy's armor and weapons giving them a fire enchantment, that caused the Ifrit to step up it's attacks. "He won't last forever." Raven stated in a tired tone of voice.

"Long enough to get you back to the school I bet." Apple flew Nevermore and Raven into the castle, the villagers should have already moved the transport mirror inside.

The Ifrit let out a angry howl as it was absorbed into the weapons of the dwarfs, they looked up to the sky as their target successfully entered the castle in spite of the bolts fired by the dwarfs in the name of little else than spite.

"Plan B fellas." The leader of the dwarfs stated looking down at his blade that now burned brightly with the power of a Ifrit.

* * *

The girls and dragon landed in the courtyard of the castle, Raven collapsed on the ground panting, summoning the Ifrit had taken a lot out of her.

"Raven are you okay!?" Apple asked kneeling over Raven who was having a bit of issue with breathing.

"I'll be fine, but we can't just leave those loons out there reeking havoc!" Raven stubbornly made a effort to stand up, Apple quickly hoisted her and led her inside of the castle.

"The only place you are going is back to the school! You could barely move the last time you summoned a Genie!" Apple snapped in a scolding tone of voice.

"Yet you still dragged me into your little study group anyway, in spite of my protests." Raven stated in a cold voice that made Apple cringe a little.

"Was it really that bad?" Apple asked doing her best impression of 'kicked puppy' that truly made Raven cringe.

" _Not fair!_ " Raven looked Apple in the eye and killed off a decent amount of emotion while she glared coldly into Apple's eyes. "No, but we need to establish some ground rules Apple: 1, occasionally being a witch means that I am going arrive back in my room drop dead tired and therefore not be up for any crazy schemes. If I say that I am not up for it, I mean it!"

"That's fair." Apple stated her face reverting to normal after the painful reminder about the disastrous study session a couple of days ago. "But you at least have to hear me out when I come up with a idea, and give it a try when you feel up for it."

"If it's not a suicidally stupid idea, then yes." Raven stated her face scrunching up when she saw the mirror they came in, shattered. "Their stubbornness is admirable anyway." Apple set Raven down on a chair as she rested. "Admirable but pointless, give me some glass and a few moments to recover my magic and I'll have us home in no time." It was at that point in time that Raven spotted several villagers in the courtyard grabbing every bucket, vase feeding trough and other container of water that they could find and haling tail out of the castle as quickly as they could. "What the...?"

Raven spotted a pillar of smoke in the distance, grabbing a glass she rushed over to the nearby balcony and enchanted the glass into a makeshift telescope and witnessed the sight of both the forest and several of the farms burning, the blighted little beer soaked hairballs had the gall to wave at her.

(5 _0%_ ) The dark colored magic was not billowing out of Raven's body quite as much as it was before, a sign of her exhaustion, but she was mad all the same, and it was obvious.

"Raven... are you okay?" Apple asked looking at Raven confused.

"I need caffeine and sugar."

A strange request given the situation, but then again Raven was a witch and Apple wasn't. Not that Apple was willing to leave Raven alone given all of that black smoke that was coming off of her. As it so happened Farrah had been rushing by, if the several sloshing cloth sacks that were floating next to her were any indication she had joined the make shift fire fighting crew. "Farrah!" Apple called prompting the fairy seamstress to look over in her direction.

"Apple? I thought you and Raven would be..." Farrah looked over Apple's shoulder to see the broken path home. "Oh."

"What's going on outside?" Apple asked doing her best to clamp down on a panic attack.

"Apparently the dwarfs spit fire now." Farrah explained gesturing to the smoke column outside. "They've set fire to the surrounding area."

( _60%_ )

The railing Raven was leaning on was shattered by the latest burst of magic the witch was spewing out.

"Is she okay?" Farrah asked looking nervously at Raven who looked ready to explode again.

"She says she needs caffeine and sugar." Apple stated bringing Farrah away from the line of sight of Raven.

"Yah no, that's a bad idea." Farrah stated prompting Apple to look confused. "Caffeine and sugar are like steroids to mages. Combine that with Raven's... unstable predisposition and you get one heck of a cocktail." Not that was their chief concern right now, the sounds of Nevermore's wings flapping as the dragon carried Raven off towards the fires.

"That's not good is it?"

Farrah shook her head in the negative.

* * *

 **Review Section** :

DJ: Baba, In two chapters, I've no plans for Cassandra right now.

Wade: Don't worry the glasses are harmless, just headache inducing. It's obvious to whoever cares to look that they'd be great together as a couple. Does this answer your question?


	24. Chapter 24

**Author's Note** : Only two reviews this time, Hmm. I wonder if I'm doing something wrong... in any case, Read, Review, Favorite and Enjoy!

* * *

Chapter 24: I am the One You Are Looking For Seven Dwarfs

The fires were raging across the forest, the towns people were moving in synchronized formation, bringing water, extinguisher spells, and shoveling dirt trying to put the fires out anyway that they could. In the mean time it was Mira, Daring, Dexter, Faybelle, Ginger and Mrs. Yaga were locked in pitched combat against the seven fire spewing dwarfs who were responsible for the damage dealt this day. Unfortunately, things weren't looking good for them. Aside from their obviously fiery disposition, the weapons and armor they were wearing was of clearly superior make to that of the weapons that Daring had retrieved, and it also had the nasty habit of absorbing the magical energy being flung at them by the witches and fairy making them stronger in the process. Then, trailing smoke and fire and angry witch, Nevermore landed in between them, the gust of wind that the dragon was giving off blew out all the flames for a good distance if not snuff them out entirely. But Raven? There was a fire burning there that would not be satiated until it simply had nothing left to burn, and right now it had it's sights set on a pack of seven dwarfs.

"I believe you are looking for a Evil Queen?" Raven asked in a even forcibly calm voice. "Well here I am!"

At once flaming arrows were let loose from the dwarfs, and were promptly smacked out of the way by Daring's sword, the blade paying the price by being reduced to molten slag.

"Raven it's too dangerous for you here!" Daring discarded what was left of his weapon and pulled another one out of the golf bag he brought earlier. "You go I'll protect you!" Daring stated striking a pose, briefly shooting off one of his 'charming' grins that could burn the cornea's out of your eyes.

Raven and the others could on shake their heads at Daring staring down at the little flaming beards that didn't know if they should shoot at him or laugh at him for his foolishness. While they were thinking about that Raven leaned over and the back of her dragon, reached out her hand, and concentrated a large amount of magic into her finger tip and flicked Daring out of her way.

"Maybe I didn't make myself clear." Raven stated with a undertone of barely contained fury, Dexter going to his brother's aid and locking eyes with the infuriated witch, finding himself reaching up for his glasses, but found himself paralyzed with fear. "All of you leave right Now!" The dark magical energy around the young 'Evil Queen' seemed to intensify blotting out Raven's form in the process bar for a set of glowing red eyes. "I do _not have the time to babysit a bunch of **immature high school students while dealing with a pack stupid idiotic beards on fire! Leave!**_" Raven snapped, her voice progressively becoming deeper and more demonic sounding as she continued her little rant.

Faybelle caught onto something faster then the others, or maybe she just had a higher resistance against immensely terrifying beings then the others. Either way.

"Come on now ladies and idiots, we don't want to get in their way now." To Faybelle's subtle hint everyone began moving away, some unable to reconcile the Raven they saw and the one they knew, others like Faybelle caught onto a different possibility. Once Raven was alone with her enemy she sent them a deep, infuriated glare.

"So you are the ones who like to try and burn down my homeland." Raven idly scratched the back of Nevermore's head as she said this. ( _90%_ ) "My, my, my. People do like to insult the royal family a lot in this day and age."

"Insult?" The leader of the dwarfs asked momentarily stunned by Raven's choice of words.

"What else can I assume this pathetic attack is? Not that I blame you fools though, you _are_ the insult, the butt of a joke someone has played on my home, if nothing else then you have my pity." Taking her attention away from her dragon, Raven looked the dwarfs in the eye as she said the following. "Surrender your lives and the names of those responsible to me. There will be no pain, no suffering. But understand that if you spend anymore time on the _farce_ you will spend the remainder of your very short lives regretting that you ever heard of a 'Evil Queen.'" Raven's threat did have an effect though not the intended one. The dwarfs started to laugh, nervous laughter but it was still laughter all the same.

"Your threats don't scare us little girl, Dwarfs are immune to magic, and this armor was specially forged by the goblins to soak up anything you could throw at us!" The Dwarfs stated sounding over confident.

"I take it that's your final answer?" Raven asked in a disappointed tone of voice.

"No actually this is our final answer!" The Dwarfs all released a huge volley of arrows at Raven and her dragon, skewering her all over and giving her a resemblance to a pin cushion.

Stella had a armed escort go with Apple and Farrah, who insisted on not staying within the confines of the safe castle while Raven and the others fought for their lives against those pyromaniac dwarfs. Apple naturally wanted to immediately go into the fray, but according to Stella there was still one creature left in the town that should not be affected by the knockout juice the dwarfs drugged the others with, which on top of that was also supposedly one of the monsters bred by Raven's Mother. If this one was anything like Nevermore then it could do some serious damage to those lunatics. It was around that time that Apple caught sight of Raven, the guards moved to block her sight, and when Apple wiggled between them, Farrah covered her eyes, before that is she had to let go with a 'OUCH!' on account of Apple biting her hand. Finally able see clearly, Apple watched in shocked horror as the arrows pierced Raven's flesh and sucked in the magic around her, Raven lifelessly slumping forward in the process.

"Honestly." Raven reached up and removed a arrow from one of her eyes, the wound having healed over instantaneously to the point that it appeared to have never existed in the first place. "There is a limit to my patience, and my temper." The Dwarfs, stunned beyond belief, armed another volley of arrows and fired. This time however Raven snapped her fingers and knocked all of the arrows out of the air. "Also, a limit to how many insults you can level against me. Like this." Raven explained as all of the arrows left her body with a pop, not even her clothes damaged. "Trying the same attack again right after you learn that it won't work?" Raven made light clicking noises with her tongue as she waved her finger at her foes. "Either you're insane, stupid, rude on purpose or God Mother forbid, all of the above. Either way I need to properly educate you on what you've done wrong so as to prevent misunderstandings like this from ever happening again. Firstly..." Raven shot another burst of magic at the dwarfs, which mysteriously enough had the side effect of pushing part of the Ifrit's magic out of their armor, reforming the fire elemental in the process.

"RAWRG!" The fiery being made of magic was about to strike again, but stopped, once it had caught sight of Raven looking it in it's eyes, suddenly it disappeared in a burst of flame.

"Goblin forged metal only absorbs that which makes it stronger, which means two things, that there is a limit, and that one thing of greater strength can replace another. For example the armor that you thought would protect you from my wrath has instead become a vessel for it." Fearfully the dwarfs attempted to get the armor off of them, only for it to suddenly tighten up around them. "Which leads me to my second point. It's because of these unique properties that Goblin forged metal is so sought after as a top tier enchanting material for magi such as I, which means that it is completely under my control." Raven emphasized her point by sticking out her finger and using it to lift one of the dwarfs into the air.

"Mercy! Mercy!"

"I gave you the chance to leave, and you didn't listen, and instead you attacked me again. And if I give you the chance to leave again you'll just do more of the same. No, I need to make an example of you." A dark bit of smoke came out of Raven's finger tip and pressed it against the armor. "And as it so happens, I have been looking to get a little something off my back for a long time, and this is just the perfect place to put it!" The scars on Raven's back started glowing, highlighting magical text as some kind of whirling mass of darkness emerged from her back and started to go up in the air, taking on the form of some kind of demonic monster made out of smoke. That monster entered the body and armor of the dwarf, completely shattering his earlier claims of being magic proofed, before he was consumed in a whirling twisting mass of... something, darkness, shadows? "Well While I'm at it I better dispose of that blighted Obscuris before it kills anyone else." Raven burned a magic circle underneath the dwarf that was still screaming in pain from the curse as she prepared a ritual.

" _Kreis der Flamme und der Seele des Soldaten verdammt, ich bitte dich, auf diese sterbliche Ebene zurückzukehren und deine sterblichen Überreste zurückzuerobern und mein Gebot zu tun!_ "

The curse like chant dispelled most of the magical smoke, the dwarf was long dead, his body twisted in horrifying fashion, the only thing barely holding him together was the sheer might of Goblin forged metal that he was wearing, and even then only just. The lifeless darkness spewing creature that was formerly a dwarf dropped to the ground with a thump. Said abomination of un-death got to it's knee and bowed before Raven.

" _Zunge des Trolls und der Feder der Harpy, die Rüstung der Verdammten und die Beruhigung der großen, geschätzten Tiere!_ "

A cocktail of items consisting of the tongue, feathers and scaly skin of some manner of beast flew out of Raven's mirror phone and circled around the little undead soldier.

" _Kommt zusammen und macht eine Rüstung von dem, der seine Brüder tötet!_ "

The armor seemed to melt down before Raven, creaking and moaning as it was forcibly twisted around and remade into something that looked distinctly demonic in nature with it's large horns and intertwined mesh of leather and metal for armor.

" _Zahn des Drachen gewährt die Macht, alle wahllos zu durchbohren!_ "

A fang followed the other items out of the phone and imbedded itself in the blade of the undead dwarf, melting it down and reforging it into a weapon with a handle made to look like the head of a dragon and a blade that bent and curved like a serpent.

" _Auge von Gorgon, bewillige deine Macht diesem elenden Gefäß!_ "

Finally, a eye came out of the seemingly bottomless pouch of items and like with the shield and sword before it it proceeded to melt down and intermingle with the dwarf's shield transforming it into something that resembled a big pile of snakes coiled around itself with two eyes carved into the metal.

"Well that should do it, enough high level curses to keep all of that malevolent energy contained." The young witchling noted as there was no longer any malevolent dark magic coming off of her new undead servant. "Pretty good if I say so myself." Turning her attention back to the other dwarfs Raven snapped her fingers and suddenly they could all move again. "Don't worry I only need one being of immense cursed power. What's gonna happen to the rest of you will be much more humane." Snapping her fingers while she said that the undead monster that Raven just spent the past ten minuets making got to it's feet.

"Don't worry lads! Our armor is Goblin Forged! There is nothing that can..." Chop them from their eyes to their balls, which by the way is exactly what just happened to the leader of the dwarfs armor, beard and all who made on desperate attempt to rally his men into a fight.

After that the dwarfs all let out a undignified ear splitting scream of terror before running off into the woods that they nearly burned down with their undead comrade chasing after them. Apple watched the entire sequence frozen stiff with terror, though once the walking mass of curses was gone she seemed to regain her composure: Because then she walked right up to the witch and slapped her across her face.

"APPLE!" Farrah shrieked at the sheer audacity of the blonde.

"I don't know who you are, or why you are here, but you are not Raven!" Apple stated hand ready to back hand the impostor witch. "And I will thank you kindly not to drag her good name through mud anymore then you have!"

"Gotta admit." Imposter Raven stated between laughing. "That's a pretty ballsy thing to do! Specially when I just sentenced a bunch of idiots to death for not coming up with a way to properly kill me!"

The dragon who looked like Nevermore let out a vicious snarl at Apple as she trudged over, the blonde princess smacking her in the nose with her finger in response. The dragon growled briefly before she shot a blue bolt of fire past Apple's head.

"Oh really?" Apple crouched down and roared in the dragon's face.

"Your Knack won't help you here girl, he only obeys me!" Impostor Raven stated in confident tone of voice.

"I wasn't thinking about her." Apple stated sounding confident. Confidence that admittedly last longer than it should given that no one appeared for a while.

"You do realize that all of the animals were drugged right?" Impostor Raven asked cocking a suspicious brow at Apple.

"Not all of them." Apple stated recalling what Stella said about one of the local members of the wildlife being cut off from the water supply for one reason or another.

"Right." Impostor Raven stated in a amused albeit disbelieving tone. Then the ground started rumbling, Both Apple and 'Raven' backed away as the earth beneath their feet gave way to... something. Huge tentacles popped out from beneath the soil as large tentacles made their way to the surface and forced the rest of the blob like creature with teeth to the surface.

"Okay..." Apple commented looking at the thing that could best be summarized as a butt with teeth.

"Oh crud." Impostor Raven muttered looking at the frankly disgusting creature before her.

"Uh..." Apple looked very confused about the creature, it looked very immobile, very gross, and over all not very useful, but she did catch a tiny hint of fear on Raven Impostor's features. "Um hi there." Apple stated waving her hand at the creature that was making wet smacking noises as it chewed on something. Said incredibly gross mass of flesh paid Apple a disinterested glance. "Can you help me catch those two?" Apple asked looking at Impostor Raven and her dragon who were already in the process of fleeing. Giving the impression of a shrug, the butt monster raised up several of its tentacles, and suddenly produced several huge magic circles that then proceeded to shoot down the impostor and her dragon over the forest. "Thank you!" Apple stated to the gross looking creature that apparently didn't pay her very much mind.

* * *

The Raven Impostor and her dragon crashed in the forest and slid to a stop in front of a cave. In spite of the rough landing neither of them seemed to be harmed all that much.

"This Glamour charm turned out to be more useful then I thought." Impostor Raven stated cracking her neck. "In any case we need to be leaving right now: That traitorous Zeugi is gonna be able to find us pretty fast." Saying that the two of them pulled a tarp off of the ground revealing a sleeping Nevermore and Raven, the real ones. "Come on." Impostor Raven took the real one's bracelet off and forced it around Nevermore's Neck. "We need to get them out of here." Impostor Raven heard someone stampeding through the forest to get to them, it sounded suspiciously like Apple managed to rally the villagers to come after them. "Okay I need to get them out of here." Impostor Raven stated waving her hand over her Dragon's face, revealing a hidden magic symbol on her snout that suddenly vanished.

* * *

"That was a... Zeugi?" Apple asked having reunited with Mrs. Yaga's group.

"Yes, a type of creature which is usually the end result of irresponsible alchemists dumping the leftovers of their experiments into the sewers, they are known for living in filth, devouring all they lay their eyes on, spewing large quantities of toxic mutagenic gases and reproducing by ahem... plowing oneself. We usually don't talk about them in polite company." Mrs. Yaga explained looking like she was talking about something unpleasant.

"Eew! That's disgusting!" Apple cringed horrified. "What on Earth is something like that doing here!?"

"The Evil Queen had a reputation for breeding monsters." Faybelle explained mentally agreeing with Apple's disgusted and horrified reaction. "Alchemists who realize how they're made some times take advantage, so long as you can sterilize them, don't actually let anyone down there for them to eat and prevent them from spewing poison gas then they're pretty good at cleaning sewers."

"But the one I saw could use magic and actually seemed to be... restrained." Apple explained sounding confused. "If it's bound by the same 'law' as all the other creatures of this land then it makes sense that it didn't attack me. But it doesn't explain how it could use magic."

"That was probably the Evil Queen's doing. After all it was the Zeugi that we harvested Raven's new origin from." That made the entire group stop and stare at Mira.

"You put the what from the what in the who?" Ginger asked unable to form complete sentences.

"Up until roughly a decade ago, the lands of Riordan's ally Camehorn had been magicless, now it's second only to Riordan and Neverland, part of the treaty was that Riordan had to figure out a way of renewing the infertile lands of Camehorn." Mira gestured a way back towards a foul looking creature. "They succeeded. Now a similar operation is under way here, why wouldn't they utilize the same creature?"

"Well I need a cold shower when I get back to the school." Farrah commented shuddering in disgust.

"I second the motion." Faybelle stated raising her hand. Suddenly, the entire group was bombarded by a ear splitting roar, looking up in the air group saw a huge shadow of a dragon in the sky, one that promptly landed in front of them. "Oh Crud."

* * *

 **Review Section** :

DJ: Glad to see I can still amuse. Does this answer your question hmm? Also, request granted.

Wade: Fruit bowl more like it. One of these days maybe, Raven is pretty good at busting out the high level sauce to burn it off.


	25. Chapter 25

**Author's Note** : I just noticed but I've got 100 reviews for this story. But I've already reached the amount of content I'm willing to put into this chapter, so celebrations will come next week. Read, Review, Favorite and Enjoy!

* * *

Chapter 25: Everything Will Be Alright, Evil Queen

Raven's doppelganger had taken to using a rather large blanket to drag her and Nevermore out of the forest, she could see the dragon facing the intruders into the forest all the way from over there. When she made it to the river she could see the undead monster she had made earlier impatiently waiting for orders.

"You'll have your revenge in do time." The Doppelganger stated ignoring the abomination of her own creation for the time being.

"On you or on them?" The spiteful undead asked cocking a imaginary brow at the Doppelganger.

"Don't blame the dragon for roasting you. Blame the fool who told you to walk up to it and poke in the butt with a stick." Saying that the Raven double continued walking.

"Did you assume that taking on that disguise would fool them for very long?" The Undead asked almost amused. "How desperate are you, if you must sink to this low."

"Not so desperate to tolerate you any longer." With a snap of her fingers the armor suddenly collapsed, as if it had the life, or whatever brand of dark magic that was keeping it on it's feet, sucked right out of it.

* * *

The group of students from Ever After high, while grateful that their draconic foe who was currently looming several stories above their heads wasn't doing anything, also questioned why it wasn't doing anything, aside from using it's impressively long tail to box them in on all sides.

"Uh Hello!?" Apple stepped forward to talk with the creature whom seemed to only barely take notice of her presence. "Our friend is missing, so if you wouldn't mind..."

"I care not." The massive black beast snapped going back to ignoring the group to stare back off into the distance.

"He can talk." Dexter noted dully.

And it was a he too, as he had unfortunately learned when he sat up on his hind quarters to intimidate the group. So in addition to being scarred for life it also meant that unlike Nevermore his 'Swooning Vision' wouldn't do them any good here.

"Nevermore can't do that, at least as far as I know." Apple commented still a little bit surprised.

"Are your hatchlings so quick to learn your... meager pathetic little tongue?" The giant black dragon asked condescendingly.

Indeed comparing Nevermore to this... beast she does look like a infant.

"Yes well. we still need to find our friend." Apple started now getting back on topic. "Someone of your size and strength will surely be able to cut down on that search by a rather severe margin." Instead of sitting here, using that damnable tail that Apple was sorely tempted to have cut off and made into a line of purses.

"I still care not. You have not been struck down yet only because of the curse that binds all _Animals..._ " The dragon said with a snarl, likely not happy _at all_ about being included in that group. "...of these lands to spare you pathetic creatures." Suddenly a claw slammed down next to the group as the dragon, suddenly more interested, leaned over to leer at the group. "Unless of course, you intend to strike at us first?"

Apple opened her mouth to say something that she would be likely to regret but thankfully for the entire group, was prevented by the firm hand of Baba Yaga.

"Or in defense of the royal family." The witch stated wisdom worthy of her years, old, even by witch standards as Apple recalled Raven mention once, rumors that she might even be _the original_ Baba Yaga had been swirling around for more then a little while. "In which case you are severely neglecting your duties by merely sitting here while the enemies of your country roam free." Unfazed the dragon held his fist above their heads and released from within several small bodies in goblin forged armor. "I don't see the doppelganger in that pile. Which either means that you are still severely neglecting your duties or..." A sudden realization hit Baba and a smile crept on her features. "A member of the royal family requisitioned your services." Seemingly dissatisfied with being found out, the giant dragon returned to sitting upright. "Oh yes I know just who to call to take care of this." Baba stated her thumb pressing down on her mirror phone.

* * *

In the mean time Raven's doppelganger was still dragging her and her dragon away from the village, and towards a very specific mirror. The grove she passed through was filled with the usual bright colors that typified Wonderland, great big mushrooms, tall striped trees, were it not for the thorough glamour charms designed to hide this place from the outside world, that old fool of a lord would probably have burned this place down long ago. But it was here, as was the well spring that it spread from, a looking glass, a portal to Wonderland, one that denied access to all but one. And denying access to her was a familiar shriveled form sitting in a wheel chair in front of the mirror. Her body burned beyond the recognition of both and wrapped in cloth bandages.

"Hello daughter." The burned woman greeted warmly.

"Mother. What are you doing here?" The Doppelganger asked cocking a suspicious brow at the broken form of her mother.

"Preventing anymore of your foolishness, _Morgan_." The younger witch rolled her eyes at having her identity revealed.

"So someone finally figured it out. It's not like I even attempted to disguise myself." The young witch stated sarcastically. "Gotta admit that spell you and the others put on me was a tricky bit of work. A siphon and a seal all in one, my own power became my cage." Hence the reason why the person with a _mirror knack_ was being held inside of a _mirror_. It's was like trapping a mole in dirt, only one wrong move could bring it all crashing down on her. "The only way I could break out was to put a second seal on myself to reduce my power, a glamour charm to trap myself in the body of my sixteen year old self."

Hence the reason why everyone thought she was Raven, she even used a similar seal on Smok to make him cooperate.

"A seal that you cannot simply casually remove otherwise you would have already." The woman revealed as Morgan's mother Jadis noted scratching her chin with a clothed hand. Then she noted the magic marking Morgan attempted to hide with her sleeves. "Ah yes you are still bound to the original prison."

"What did you expect burning the runes directly onto my body?" Morgan asked in a annoyed tone of voice. "Did you come here to mock me for my life choices or are you going to get out of my way?"

"No I'm here to stop you." Using her good hand, which it should be noted was still covered mostly in burns, the elder witch produced a magic circle. "An ultimatum, I will place a third seal on you, increasing the power of the other two in the process, you will be trapped inside of your prison, in a much younger and weakened form then what you are now, and no one will be able to free you. Or you will return to your cage willingly."

"Is that a fact?" Another magic circle appeared in Morgan's hand. "You can try." Morgan stated fire in her voice as much as her words. "Did you honestly think that sending her to Ever After High of all places was a good idea? They've turned her own _clothes_ against her! Her _clothes_!"

"I suppose that was the final straw for you wasn't it?" Jadis commented breathing a sigh of understanding.

"She has enemies from all sides! The weapons the dwarf's wielded were goblin forged, the poisoning a fake to draw suspicion. If she can't even trust her own people to not turn against her then where is she suppose to be safe!?" The tension was thick as peasoup, had Morgan a blade she would cut it, but she would have to settle for what was left of her magic, years of not being able to see her family again, and impending sense of misery that she was sure to be in for, was fueling what would be a spectacular explosion.

"At your side Morgan." Jadis stated a smile on her features. "As you have been. Through every mirror of Ever After High. She was no safer when she was home, what with you having to fend off ten assassination attempts on a daily basis, that mountain where the two of you made your home became a fortress, and it only barely held back the tide because of you. Now you're trapped, the fear you inspired by the _charade_ you put above Wonderland has waned. And the attacks renewed. So we sent her to the only place she would be safe."

"Oh bravo." Morgan responded to the actions by clapping her hands together in slow and sarcastic manner. "You sent her under the protection of a witch trapped in another dimension in a school full of lack luster meat shields."

"I sent her under the protection of the strongest and brightest witch alive today, one who shattered through the obstacles before her and is now in the process of bringing her to safety." Jadis stated more than a touch of pride in her voice.

"Oh bravo." Morgan gave a sarcastic clap to her mother. "What a brilliant idea, call in the legendary miracle worker the Evil Queen and she'll will the world to function in a appropriate manner again. It's so nice to see that you've intermingled so well with our neighbors in Ever After."

"It is not the Evil Queen I stand here before today. It is Morgan Konigan, the woman who has had a strategy in place to wipe out her enemies far longer than any of the rest of us have. The woman who devised a plan to lure her daughter out from what she considers a enemy fortress to where she could be snatched up and taken to safety." Jadis leaned forward, eyes pointed at the village Morgan had left. "Tell me something, how long has that Charade been in place?"

"When was the last chance I had to put it up?" Morgan replied cocking a brow.

"With that fancy seal of yours it could be any time that you pleased." Jadis replied looking amused. It was then that Morgan saw a familiar lumbering form of black armor emerge from behind Jadis.

"Hello Corvo." Morgan stated in a dull tone of voice.

"I've come to bring my daughter to safety." Corvo stated in his usual unflappable demeanor.

"Good luck with that. There's not a single safe place in the entire world." Morgan replied in a drained tone of voice. "No where but your side." Was Corvo's response.

"Yes, my power reduced, locked in a cage and surrounded by people who at best, think of me as a insane mad woman who should be locked away for everyone's sake." Morgan stated repeating the same mantra that she had before.

"But with a plan." Corvo pointed out one finger in the air.

"Do you want to know what my plan is!? I am going to take my daughter and I will run as fast and as far away from here as possible and never look back, not on my enemies, not on my supposed allies, not on my own people. Just a lonely old hermit whose daughter is going to spend the rest of her very long life cursing my name! That is my plan!" Morgan snapped long held anger and pain in her voice.

"I don't believe you." Corvo said voice full of cocksure confidence.

"WHY!? WHY IS IT SO HARD FOR ALL OF YOU TO BELIEVE THAT I'M NOT SOME KIND OF GOD SENT MIRACLE WORKER!? I'M JUST ME! I'M JUST MORGAN!" Morgan screeched, frustration mounting, the tethers of her sanity pulling away from her.

"Because you are not a messenger of a being who does not care for our existence. You are one who draws her power from her sorrow and tempers it with your hope and undying will to live." Corvo grabbed Morgan by her shoulder. "I know sometimes it feels better to run away, and you're not wrong. But it is never okay to doubt yourself my wife. To do so is to admit defeat."

Morgan couldn't hold her sorrow any longer. She grabbed Corvo around his waist and cried into him. How long had it been that she could see her family, hold them in her arms and not be stifled by a prison of her own design? How long has it been that she let her sorrow loose, for fear of the reprisal she would face for even a hint of weakness? How long had it been that she was surrounded by people she loved?

* * *

Raven was slow to stir, the sleeping potion some one dumped down her throat wearing off. Raven had another nightmare, dragged over while someone mumbled her rights, the sight of her mother tearing someone apart with her bare hands, being held down while a knife carved into her back, numbess as something alien entered her veins. When she awoke she was snuggling a miniature Nevermore who was similarly stirring to consciousness. Her pounding headache subsided as she saw someone latched around her father's waist crying.

"What happened?" Suddenly the young girl about her age stopped crying, wiped her tears and excused herself before running off. "Grandma Jadis? Dad? What's going on?"

"The dwarfs struck hard, they attacked you in mid flight, landed in the middle of the forest fire the young lady over there saved you." Corvo stated gesturing off to the direction of the young woman with the strangest resemblance to Raven herself. "Dispatched the assassins and brought you here."

Raven looked around at the bizarre flora, it was strange even by Riordan's standards.

"That mirror there is the Looking Glass, one of the oldest portals to Wonderland, or more accurately it's neighbor Looking-Glass Land. The Magic has a unusual effect on the local plant life or so I'm told." The young witch explained streaks of dried tears on her face. "You should get back to your friends now." The young lady that saved Raven's life stated in melancholic voice. "I left a rather irritable dragon to look after them."

The two Raven's flew back to the group on the back of Nevermore, Raven almost dropping her jaw when she saw Nevermore's grandfather the legendary dragon Smok.

"Smok!? You got Smok to help you? How did you get Smok to help you!? The last person who got Smok to do anything was my grandma!" Raven shrieked clearly confused.

"Mighty he might be but he lacks opposable Thumbs." Hence the reason why Dragons make packs with humans in the first place, as there are some things that they simply cannot do for themselves. Even so they are prideful creatures, so only the mighty may approach them with such offers. Or you could just be a insanely powerful witch even with two high level seals placed on you who sneaked up on the one insanely powerful dragon that was already magically bound not to eat you while he was sleeping and brute forced him into helping you. That would also work, in theory. "Well lets get down there then."

Raven ignored her savior's thoughts on the matter and flew down below. Smok caught sight of them and the corner of his mouth turned upwards in a smirk.

"It would seem that the matter has been resolved." Saying that the massive dragon turned around and got on all fours to take off into the air. Apple squinted at the form of the dragon wondering what he meant.

"Apple, are you guys okay?" Apple spun around and saw Raven on Nevermore's back behind her, and behind her was the Raven Doppelganger. At once Apple charged, Raven had enough time to erect a barrier and prepare for the inevitable death hug. And was surprised when Apple rushed past her and tackled her passenger onto the ground. "Apple?"

"Run Raven! I got her!" Apple stated sinking unnecessary amounts of force into restraining the other witch.

"Apple, let her go." Raven stated, looking more embarrassed then anything else.

"What? No! She..."

"Saved me from a forest fire, recruited a dragon and a undead monster to kill my assassins, and then brought me to safety." Raven stated evenly in no uncertain terms. "Now get off of her. She can probably kill all of us with a nasty glare." Slowly Apple was pulled off of Raven's savior, their eyes never separating except for when the other witch brushed the dirt off of her.

"I don't trust you." Apple stated bluntly causing the Amethyst eyes of the witch to cock. "You kept us from Raven."

"I took no less then the bare minimal precautions to keep her safe." The witch stated looking Apple directly in her eyes. "Including, cutting her off from a potential conspirator in the attempts on her life. If memory serves the most recent attempt before today involved clothing that you had bullied her into wearing." Apple looked more offended then anything else, but before she could say anything Raven's hand stopped her.

"I owe you a great deal for saving my life. But I will not tolerate further insults to my oldest and dearest friend. Am I understood?" Raven asked locking eyes with the other witch that looked a great deal like her.

"Of course." The other witch replied giving a polite bow. "Your father and Grandmother will be arriving at the castle shortly."

"Jadis is gonna be here?" Apple asked looking at the other witch in surprise.

"Correct." The witch gestured around to the mostly ashen landscape. "They're rather concerned about the damages done here. This area is now one of Riordan's vassals, we would like for it to stay intact." A tree collapsing behind the Witch punctuated her sentence. "Mostly intact. With her permission I will escort young Miss Konigan back to the castle." It took some of the group a minuet to process what the witch had told them, specifically Dexter and Daring.

"She means me guys." Raven stated letting out a eye roll. One of these days she was going to find the source of that accursed auto translating spell bound to the campus and she was going to eviscerate it!

* * *

The group arrived inside of the castle. Apple eagerly scanned faces as servants went to work preparing the meals for their guests for the evening, trying to find the face of a woman who was like a grandmother to her. Aside from the servants she caught sight of Raven's father Corvo, who was sitting next to the shriveled figure of someone who saw hell.

"I thought you said Jadis was here?" Apple asked shooting the witch a dirty look who gestured to the shriveled woman down the table.

"Oh dear me, I must look worst then I thought if one of my favorite people in the world doesn't even recognize me." The shriveled witch said with a mock pout.

"Grandma Jadis?" Apple asked staring in shock, pushing past servants as she made her way over to Jadis. "What...? How...? Who...?" Apple found herself bubbling with rage with each syllable.

"There was a fire, a attempt on one of our cities, shortly before Morgan... made herself famous." Jadis leaned back as best as she could in her chair. "Hence the reason I could no longer visit." Hence the reason why Morgan set out to make herself the biggest scariest thing in history. "I do feel better now. Raven has dedicated herself to the study of magical medicine, no matter what manner of lunatic is trying to kill her that particular week she always makes sure that I get some of the specialized creams and potions that she makes." And she makes sure no-one has tampered with or replaced, she'd recognize her own grand daughter's magical power any day of the week, imbued with the power of honest to goodness love as few others can.

"That is good to hear grandmother." Raven stated respectfully, relief and sorrow in equal measures. "I fear though that I might be a touch delayed, my alchemy stash was raided by our Chem-myth-ry teacher in the name of homework."

"Oh really?" Jadis muttered something about Rumplestiltskin before her eyes locked with Baba Yaga. "Well if it was homework, then the school should reimburse shouldn't it?" Jadis asked looking directly at Mrs. Yaga.

"I completely agree!" Mrs. Yaga stated in a sing song voice hands flaring to the side. "In fact I know exactly where the little goblin keeps all of his potion supplies." Among other ill gotten gains profited from abuse of students too scared of the little monster to report his blatant abuse. "In fact, a large portion of those ingredients were purchased in this very village."

"Stop stop!" Raven stated waving her arms around the room some. "He already hates me. And I don't need more people trying to kill me. Can we please let this train of thought die here?" Raven asked both hands in a begging position.

* * *

 **Review Section** :

DJ: I hope all of your questions have been answered, to say otherwise is proof that you're not paying attention. Not that I think you're not, having caught all of my not so subtle hints.

Guest: Apple will be fine. Told yah she wasn't in any danger. Like she said, it's not like Morgan made the effort to disguise herself, she just made herself look younger and made the same fashion choices.


	26. Chapter 26

**Author's Note** : Only two reviews... disappointing. Very disappointing. Read, Review, Favorite and Enjoy!

* * *

Chapter 26: Everything You Know is a Lie Snow White

Now that everyone was rested they could get back to the school, the towns people had generously replaced everything the group bought that was damaged in the fire. While at first Apple wished to refuse not wishing to place any additional burden on the town that was almost burned down the sight of Jadis and the witch who saved Raven using magic to regrow all the tree's put those doubts to bed.

"Are you going to be okay?" Apple asked the sight of the woman she considered to be a grandmother covered in burns and confined to a wheel chair was a sight that would haunt her for many years to come.

"You need not worry about me dear." Jadis stated in a grandmotherly tone of voice. "Now, try to keep my grand daughter out of trouble for me? Please?"

"It's your grand daughter who has to keep her out of trouble." Faybelle stated walking up behind Apple. "The pack mules are ready to go." Faybelle stated pointing out Daring and Dexter who were both hunched over with several feet worth of items on their backs. It looked painful. "We should probably skedaddle."

"Alright I just have some stuff I need to do." Apple stated prompting Faybelle to shrug her shoulders and leave. "After all of this time I still don't even know your name." Apple stated looking to Raven's young savior who's magic was repairing the damage done to a dead tree. "I would make you a student of Ever After High for a reward." At this, the witch visibly flinched, and spun around her feet to glower at at Apple.

"Yes please, take me away from my studies of actual life skills and vital magic classes so that I can learn how to laugh evily and be tormented by delicate fair maidens." It took Apple a minuet to process the witch's dry sarcasm.

"You could have just said no." Apple stated looking a touch offended.

"Can I? How many times did our 'Evil Queen' say no to your mother before she finally went utterly mad and had to drop out because she finally decided to defend herself?" The witch asked cocking a brow at Apple. Jadis attempted to swat the younger witch in the back of her head but was stopped by a healthy not burnt arm.

"Drop it, young miss White has had a harrowing enough day without you bad mouthing her family." Jadis stated in a firmly displeased tone of voice.

"So when your family, my Queen and her daughter, are disrespected by her's in order to put themselves on a ever so slightly higher pedestal we are not allowed to voice our displeasure?" The witch asked cocking a brow at the elder witch.

"Did... something happen between Raven's mother and mine?" Apple asked confusion and terror creeping into her features.

"Oh nothing that 'went against the script' I assure you." The witch stated in a slightly more polite manner, more of a mocking politeness. "Why the latest generation Evil Queen played her role 'perfectly' in fact you could say that she was the most 'perfect' Evil Queen since the original. Your father on the other hand proved to be such a sub standard charming prince that he almost botched the entire thing. But your mother being the first class double dealing schemer that she is cleaned the whole thing up 'Perfectly!'"

"That's enough!" Jadis threateningly pointed her finger at the young witch with a magic circle atop it. "Go wait for me by the Carriage and I'll take you back to the school!"

The witch seemed happy with the results, and walked away shooting Apple a smirk. Apple on the other hand looked flustered and horrified.

"What... What was..." Apple didn't even know how to process this new information.

"Faybelle sweetie, we might need some help over here." At this Faybelle walked over, muttered something about not calling her names, and dragged Apple looked frozen stiff back through the mirror portal to the school.

* * *

On the other side of the portal, Rumplestiltskin was impatiently waiting seated atop a giant spool of gold thread, awaiting the delivery of his goods. The Portal rippled as the students came through, led by Daring and Dexter who looked ready to snap in two from the strain being put on their backs.

"I'll take those thank you! And if you drop them I will have both of your hides on my wall!" The mad goblin snapped angrily his accent thick and fast with the threats jumping on the spot. Seemingly relieved both of the boys collapsed on the spot.

"And I'll take that!" Stepping through the Portal Baba Yaga ordered one of her carpets to wrap around the spool of thread and hoist it into the air.

"Bah! Keep the thread skinner!" The lost of the golden thread was unfortunate, but paled in comparison to gains of the extremely rare potion ingredients he gained. "With these, I will created master pieces that are worth thousands of spools of gold thread!"

"Ah, which reminds me." Pulling out a enormously long bill Baba handed it over to the happy but now confused goblin. "Under the charter of student rights, the school must pay for all funds spent in the name of academic projects."

"What?" Rumplestiltskin stated sounding thoroughly scared.

"Now since your little home work spiel against Raven was unauthorized that means that you are one responsible for paying instead of the school." Baba Yaga was now idly tapping her finger against her chin.

"What!?" Rumplestiltskin on the other hand was doing a pretty good imitation of a gold fish bobbing his mouth open and close.

"Oh heroes." Baba stated smacking both of the Charming's passed out on the ground on the butt with her cane. "Be good little pack mules and take these to Raven's room for me." Baba stated looking down right smug.

"WHAAATT!" The mad goblin shrieked in a mixture of fury and realization. "YOU... YOU... WITCH! YOU VICIOUS EVIL WITCH! YOU PLANNED THIS FROM THE BEGINNING!" Baba let out a cackle as she walked towards the girl's dorm.

""Uuggh!"" Dexter and Daring groaned as they lift their payload up. "At least Raven's room is on the first floor."

The girls in the mean time were led into the dorm by Raven who was leading a full sized Nevermore who was carrying Apple who looked like she was still having a hard time processing reality. Baba stood in front of the door, smirking Evilly at the boys as they approached the doorway, Daring stopping short.

"Why... did... you...?" A loud buzzing noise interrupted Dexter as he was zapped as soon as he entered the doorway, leading to him to slam into the floor with the supplies on top of him as the security charms reacted to the uninvited guest.

"Well come on now 'heroes' we don't want to keep Raven waiting." Baba stated waving the boys in as if it's the obvious thing to do.

Daring briefly recalled from his classes that the role of Baba Yaga was to provide wisdom and guidance to young heroes starting on their quest, though in exchange she would demand that they go through elaborate trials that amounted to cruel practical jokes to fetch odd items for her, some kind of flower apparently.

"You're a very bad lady you know that right?" Daring asked sweat visible and his veins strained as he looked up and shot the witch a hateful, hateful glare.

"Flattery will get you everywhere my young friend." Not out from underneath the pile of potion ingredients apparently though, as Daring noted watching Baba Yaga saunter off for parts unknown.

"This is no good." Raven noted snapping her fingers in front of Apple's face who looked frozen stiff. "Come on we need to get her up to our room." Raven stated prompting some of the other girls to look confused.

"Up? Aren't you still on the disabled list?" Blondie asked pointing to the room to the east of the building.

"My leg's healed." Raven stated pulling up her pant leg. "It was only ever going to be a temporary arrangement. There's a late arrival to the school coming in a couple of days. Only unlike me she lacks the use of both of her lower legs." Raven stated pointing to her lower body. "So I've got to bugger back off to my actual room so that she can move in!"

"All of yours and your roommate's personal belongings have been moved already." Mira stated standing next to the stair case.

"Alright up the stairs you go Nevermore." Raven stated as the princess carrying dragon followed Raven up the stairs.

Dexter and Daring on the other hand, both noted with true horror, both just outside of the room where Raven was staying in, that now the group of girls were heading up stairs.

"Come on boys." Baba stated sitting on her flying carpet as she floated over the stair case. "The top floor awaits."

"Daring, the next time someone asks us if we want to go on a field trip to Riordan, my answer is no!" Dexter snapped sweat and anger creasing his features.

In the mean time Faybelle explained that she had the perfect potion to snap Apple out of her daze. That 'potion' was more commonly known as a bucket of ice water.

"Stand clear." The other girls got out of the way while Faybelle threw the icy water into Apple's face.

The scared stiff girl soon sputtered back to life and was momentarily confused by being back at the dorm, before she figured out what was going on that is.

"Faybelle!" Raven was visibly displeased by the fairy's deception. "Hang on Apple I'll go get a towel." Raven quickly left the room, sending Faybelle a glare as she left.

"Briar." Apple turned to face Briar who was sitting closest to her. "My make up seems to be a touch runny, could you go get me some?"

"Ah sure just give me a sec." Briar went for Apple's personal vanity, but was stopped by Apple's firm grip.

"Briar, my make up seems to be a touch runny, could you go get me some?" Apple requested extremely politely.

So polite in fact that it gave the same kind of tension that a tight rope walker might feel when they realize that someone set their safety net on fire and released the circus's collection of exotic carnivorous animals loose in the performing area.

"Riiight." Briar quickly exited the room, the other girls wisely followed suit, with Mira opting to stand guard outside. That left only Apple, and Faybelle who was not intimidated by Apple's feigned politeness.

"It's a shame you're not a villain. You've got the 'I will politely kick your butt' voice down pat." Faybelle praised, her hands clapping in a slow and mocking manner.

"What, happened between Raven's mother and my mother?" Apple asked, hand around Nevermore's leash as she sensed the tension in the room and instinctively sided with the girl with the animal knack.

"Traitor." Faybelle spat with a smirk, reaching into her pocket and blowing some kind of green dust at Nevermore took one whiff and collapsed asleep with a happy smile on her face. "And as for you. If you mean to intimidate me, I suggest you try something other than some cheap half baked threat." To this challenge, Apple took out her mirror phone, opened her speed dial and showed it to Faybelle, who squinted at the phone. There was a small ping of fear in the fairy's eyes, when she saw the number of her great grand mother though it was soon replaced by laughter. "Well done! Alright, that much is worth a little bit of a threat." Faybelle shrugged her shoulders. "So what do you already know?"

"The witch who saved Raven, she said that the Evil Queen played her role 'perfectly.' What does that mean?" Apple asked cocking a suspicious glare at Faybelle. "Hmm. So they let that embarrassing little incident out in the public eh?" Faybelle commented her eyes laughing.

"What does that mean!?" Apple asked again, force in her throat as she began loosing her patience.

"Why it's quite simple. In order to escape from this hell hole of a school the 'Evil Queen' decided that the easiest way was to simply get the story over with. So one day she poisoned a apple, hunted your little blight of a mother down, and shove it down her throat." Faybelle smiled at the reaction Apple gave.

"Shoved it? You mean to say that...?" Apple asked looking confused.

"No tricks, no traps, no old lady potion. Good old Morgan Queen wrestled your mother to the ground, and shoved a apple inside her big mouth until your mother chewed and swallowed." Faybelle stated enjoying the mortified look on Apple's face. "After that she took off into the woods. Your Daddy prince charming did his best to break the hold the potion had on her, but he failed, so he rounded up a bunch of dwarfs and chased Raven's mother deep into the forest to make her spit out how to wake up your mommy." Faybelle started laughing as if she found something funny. "They were met by the fruits of her latest explosion."

"The Snap Dragons?" Apple asked prompting Faybelle to nod.

"Oh yes it was quite the funny sight for my mother watching your disgrace of a father and his little dwarf minions tied up and screaming about being eaten alive by the plants." Suddenly, Apple stood up and slapped Faybelle across her face, though the Fairy only really saw fit to laugh. "Raven's 'Baba' had to come all the way over here pick up her daughter driven absolutely mad by your mommy and make her tell her how to wake your mommy up." Faybelle started laughing again as if someone had told her another joke. "'Upon biting the apple Snow White fell into a deep, dreamless sleep only to be awoken by true, loves kiss!'" Faybelle illustrated her point making a smooching face at Apple, which only made the young princess want to punch her in her stupid mouth.

"What are you babbling about?" Apple snapped angry at the fairy for disrespecting the story told to Apple throughout her child hood.

"Your mother, was a perfectionist. She refused to settle for anything less than perfect, so much so that when she got a push over of a villain she and her little gang of friends tormented her and every friend she ever had until they succeeded in chasing every one of them away, so 'following her wishes' Morgan used the same potion used by the original Evil Queen, not the half baked one they teach in evil spells." Faybelle stated shrugging her shoulders.

"Aren't they the same thing?" Apple asked looking confused.

"Really?" Snapping her fingers Faybelle summoned her evil spells book and opened it to a rather ominous page. "'Snow White Binding Potion. First ingredient, hair from Snow White's true love.'" Faybelle read smirking at Apple's confused expression.

"What does that have to do with anything?" Apple asked continuously growing frustrated.

"Everything you know. How would the original Evil Queen know who Snowy's true love is without her first being cursed and then awakened? If she truly meant for her to sleep forever why not simply kill the one person who could wake her up from her deep sleep before all was said and done? The answer is simple. Everything you know and believe in is a lie, you don't come from a long line of true love couples, you come from a long line of arranged marriages. Your fairy tale a clever rouse to shackle you, make you believe that the one who wakes you is your special someone so that you will endure a unhappy marriage and spit out the next one to be molded into a brainless, ditzy pawn of your future court." Faybelle burst out laughing again, wiping a tear from her eyes as she smirked sinisterly at Apple. "Really Raven's mother was the only one to properly play their role during the whole thing, what with your dog of a mother doing everything she could to chase away every friend your mother ever had and turning the entire student body against her until good old Morgan developed a chronic pathological hatred of her. Wrapping the head master and his drunken antics around her finger to ensure that not even my mother would be able to shield her from your mother's wrath. The closest thing to a prince charming she had was our own exceptionally smooth talking doctor Cateye, who had to carve the apple chunk out of her throat to wake her up. Why she made a better Evil Queen then any one else in Raven's entire family tree!"

Apple slapped Faybelle in her face again before running out of the room. Several of the girls were in for a rude surprise when Apple slammed the door open and knocked those who were pressing their ears against the wall on the floor.

"Alright I'm back." Raven stated carrying a couple of towels from the bathroom downstairs. "I can't believe they didn't have our bathroom stocked." Suddenly Raven was tackled by Apple who proceeded to hug her and cry into her chest. The other girls suddenly found themselves preoccupied by every thing from looking at the potted plants in the hallway to checking out the view outside from the top floor and going out of their way to ignore Apple or Raven, Faybelle came out of Raven's room laughing in spite of the two red hand prints on her cheeks and Daring and Dexter finally made it to the top floor before collapsing with all the potions supplies on top of them. "What's going on?" A very confused Raven asked looking at all of these things that were happening at once.

* * *

 **Review Section** :

DJ: Morgan is going to spend some quality time with her mother and husband before she get's shoved back inside the mirror.

Wade: It was mostly done for comical effect really.


	27. Chapter 27

**Author's Note** : And now we take a break from the antics of Raven and Apple for a couple of chapters. You didn't expect me to focus on the same thing day in and out did you?

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Chapter 27: Do what you have to, Princess Charming

Raven was currently rethinking her life choices, having taken the liberty of taking both Dexter and Daring off to the nurses office on account of the numerous injuries they suffered as a result of Mrs. Yaga's pranks, the doctors decided that now was a appropriate time for one of their check ups and this time they were out for blood. And tissue samples. And Raven isn't entirely sure about what they took out of her just now but she had to send Nevermore out of the office to keep her from ripping out the Heart from Swine.

"Remind me. I am letting you three poke and prod me like a petri dish because?" Raven asked looking at the three mad doctors suspiciously.

"You are aware what normally happens to a person infected by Matanago Mushroom spores correct?" Cat-Eye asked looking at her charts with suspicion.

"Yes." Symptoms start with sweating, stomach illness, ends with huge mushrooms growing out of your face and being reduced to slightly less than a drooling mindless abomination of mushroom and person. "Thank you for that by the way, as if I didn't have enough nightmare fuel as it is."

"Yes well the strange thing is that you're not like that, as if you're naturally immune. If we can decipher how..."

"Nope! Nope! All of my Nope!" Raven stated standing straight up and excising herself from the chair. "I saw that movie already, first you want to run some tests, then you want my blood, then you're cutting out my brain and I need that! Nevermore we're leaving!"

The door knob blew off leaving a smoking hole in the the door that was now swinging open to reveal a angry dragon. The Doctor's wisely chose to step aside and Nevermore walked over to Raven and made herself at home inside of the witch's purse. When Raven got outside she spotted the familiar form of the only female among the school's top three charming siblings, sitting at the chair closest to the door leading into the three doctor's office.

"Do you know how my brother's are doing?" Darlene 'Darling' Charming asked idly flipping through the pages of her magazine.

"I don't know." Raven noted that the magazine was quite a bit thicker then the norm, and the page Darling was reading, something about swords from what she could see, which did not line up with the contents on the cover which was a fashion magazine. "The mad Doctors were too fascinated with trying to carve pieces of me off for a experimental vaccine."

"I noticed." Darling stated eyeing door way that Nevermore demolished intently before putting her Magazine aside. "Sit."

"Ah Darling I have to..."

"Sit." Raven obediently sat down in the chair directly across from Darling. "So, I assume you know what fate awaits me as Lady Charming?"

"I have a vague understanding that you are meant to select a potential mate from Charming prep, preferably one who has demonstrated considerable curse breaking ability, and produce at least two heirs to your family while Daring marries into Apple's family and Dexter into Rosabella's. To be frank I have little interest in backwards, medieval and blatantly sexist marriage practices so my knowledge is rather limited." Raven stated in a tone equal parts dismissive and understanding.

"Not entirely true, I get out of being a walking baby factory if I can secure the role of princess in one of the school's many fairy tales. I've been told to seek a relationship with 'the Frog Prince.' But yes: the scenario you described summarizes my situation as it is." Darling stated visibly annoyed. "I will be blunt. It's not a bad offer, trying to marry me off to Hopper. My parents are even being considerate, of my desire to not simply be another damsel in distress. In fact as a child the Frog Prince was my favorite fairy tale, in what other story does the 'helpless damsel' save the 'charming prince?'" Darling let out a long suffering sigh, in spite of the apparent obviousness of her course of action it was clear that she was not happy with either of the options that were presented to her. "It's almost perfect, but it isn't, it's far from perfect."

"Because you don't love Hopper?" Raven asked cocking a knowing brow at Darling.

"He puts me in the mind of a far less intelligent version of Dexter. That is far too close to inbreeding for me to feel comfortable." Says the person who comes from the family whose singular purpose for existing is to provide diverse genetic stock for families who have been practicing inbreeding for centuries. "Aside from that point _he_ is not my type."

"I understand." Raven stated nodding both sympathetically and with understanding. "The only difference between us is that I'm slightly more flexible with my practices."

"I wouldn't let Goldilocks know." Darling spat with distaste. "She has been spreading... rumors, that you are not nearly so steadfast in your beliefs as you lead people to believe. The horse's mouth would be your best bet, I can only provide second hand knowledge."

"Hmm. I see." So Apple's little propaganda tool is not doing her job properly, that is troubling. "I will deal with Blondie. Are there any other matters you wish to ask about?" Raven asked cocking a interested brow.

"How do you do it? Go against everything everyone around you believes in to try for something better?" Darling asked, tone firm but something desperate inside of it.

"Having a family that supports my decisions and loves me helps." Raven stated letting out a sigh. "Also, having people who are blunt with me about their intentions and advice also helps, even if I had to go through trouble of pulling that bluntness out by the teeth, a role that I will serve for you now. I've no doubt that your family loves you with all their might, as any good parents should, and as I'm sure that you feel. But you aren't being treated like it. You are being treated as a pawn to propagate their influence, either as a means to continue the family line after their two sons are married off, or as a means to be wed into a third fairy tale family thereby expanding their influence. It's toxic and unhealthy, cash in whatever trust fund they have for you and cut ties immediately. If you need a loan I have money to spare, if you need help I will offer what influence I can. Do what you want to do, with the understanding that there are people who want to support you, if not me then your brothers." Raven stated voice sincere.

"And of you? What would you get from offering me aid that I can only describe as too good to be true?" Darling asked looking at Raven suspiciously.

"Speaking politically. Your family name does carry weight even if you choose to shed it. I'll get someone who would make a good ally and friend in difficult times for my homeland, and a better warrior then the students of the heroics class combined." That surprised Darling. "Creature assessment. A low tier spell that has served my family well for a long time. And while not capable of providing a accurate assessment, it does give a basic idea. The basics are, you are a lot stronger then either of your brothers, and you know it." Raven stated in a knowing tone of voice. "Personally speaking, I need friends." Saying that, Raven leaning over to the beauty magazine Darling had been reading earlier. "Good issue?"

"Informative." Darling stated vaguely. "And illuminating. Thanks for being blunt with me."

"No problem." Raven stated amusement on her features. "I find seeking the council of the White Queen is a wise decision in times such as these."

Darling cocked a interested brow as the Witch Queen carrying her body guard walked away.

* * *

'Her Majesty The White Queen' was busy doing paper work for the evening. Her fellow Wonderlandians recent found a section of the woods that been filled to the brim with Wonderland's magical power and warped the surrounding plants and animals with the usual magic which pervaded her homeland. For her this was a good thing, meant a possible way back to her home land, a starting point to which to launch a expedition into getting their people back to their home and native lands safe and sound. For everyone else this was a bad thing, a avenue for the blighted Evil Queen and her curse to infect their lands after it was most likely twisted beyond all recognition by the effects of the Riddilish magic which naturally exists in the atmosphere. Therefore she found herself cooperating with Baba Yaga and a slew of magically inclined students to investigate 'Wonderland Grove' as thoroughly as possible and determine what if any threat it posed to the world at large. Then came the knocking.

"I told you Lizzie I would have the results done when I'm ready." In spite of the White Queen's dismissive grumblings door opened anyway, revealing not The future Queen of Hearts Lizzie but Darling.

The White Queen took the charming girl in with mild interest as she walked over, sat down, and made a show of getting comfortable.

"Recently, an individual I believe will make for a good friend advised me to seek your assistance on a problem I have. I want to learn how to fight, where my own family has proven consistently unwilling to teach. I am aware that a favorite hobby of your home land is for you and your closest neighbor the Red Queen to line up your respective forces, and beat each other into submission following rules similar to chess and stopping just short of killing each other, so I believe that you are the most promising candidate to teach me." Darling stated in a even tone of voice.

The White Queen looked at Darling for a few moments, a mix of disbelief and interest on her features. She got up, went to a nearby cabinet and opened it to reveal a coffee machine with the symbol of the hatter family on it. The White Queen took two cups from a conveniently placed rack and filled both up with piping hot liquid before setting one in front of Darling.

"I am aware of your circumstances, which earns you my pity and little else. Why should I help you?" The White Queen asked before taking a long deep drink from her mug.

"I have little to offer I'm afraid. Just by coming here I'm already turning my back on everyone I ever cared about and as soon as my parents learn about what I'm doing I will likely either be shipped off to Charming boarding for some correctional discipline or disowned entirely." Darling stated letting out her defeated sigh and taking a drink from her mug.

"Hmm." The White Queen cocked a eye with intrigued at the Charming girl.

On the one hand, it was a long while since someone had the gall to walk up to her and demand favors with nothing in return. Yet refreshingly so, she had also for all intents and purposes left herself entirely at her mercy, a blank canvass was a rare but welcomed luxury in this day and age.

"The members of your family have magic written into your veins correct?" Knacks, all had them, a manifestation of ones identity made through the magic in the atmosphere, few have the ability to make use of them, the magic in their veins so pathetically small that such abilities do not even manifest. "Explain."

"Ugh." Darling made a displeased noise with her throat, it wasn't a topic she was happy about talking about. "..op an ook ow pretty..." Darling mumbled incoherently.

"Speak up!" The White Queen was not accustomed to people making her repeat herself.

"'Stop and look how pretty I am.'" Darling stated letting out another long suffering sigh. "The Charming's abilities are tied to our looks." Darling stated draining the contents on her cup. "Daring blinds people with his smile, a ability as about as envious as it is cringe worthy. Dexter can knock any woman he meets out cold just by looking at them in the eye, thank goodness he needs glasses in the first place. But as for me? Watch the mug." Darling tossed the mug into the air, before pulling her mane of hair forward and flicking it back. The cup was frozen in midair, and the White Queen noted that she could not look away, her head stuck in place. But only briefly, the cup fell back to Earth and Darling caught it nimbly.

"That was impressive." The White Queen noted a little stunned.

"As for me, my power is to force people stop and stare at me for short periods of time. Aside from that my family has kept me on a strict diet of Riordan's buffing type food since I was an infant." The effects of which is slowly absorbed into the body over time, especially if done so from a young age where one's growth period is at it's height. "They were very keen on the idea of making the next generation as strong as possible." Darling caught the movements that the White Queen's jaw was making. Shock, confusion, joy, a little bit of the madness that typified the wonderlandians on her features, Darling could feel herself being dissected by the woman.

" _Dear lord I hit the jackpot!_ "

"Come." The Queen ordered and Darling complied, any sense or desire of resistance melting away. "You will learn how we do things in Wonderland soon enough. Before that I will learn what I have to work with, and after that your training will begin."

"I haven't much to offer I'm afraid, my family was quite intent to keep me from anything that they thought would scare a potential suitor away." Darling stated bitter notes in her voice. "What I know I learned from watching others train and be trained, and then repeating it when no others were looking."

"Hmm. Self taught, that doesn't bode well for you." The White Queen stated coming upon a rack of weapons used by the Heroics class, Darling only now realizing that while she was lost in thought the White Queen was leading her outside to the field used by her brother's classes. "Chose your weapon."

Darling took a look into the shed used as a small armory, her fingers went over the Rapier, one handed, by far the lightest weapon in the room, perhaps even a good choice for those not yet use to the rigors of swinging a sword. But Darling's eyes were drawn to the long sword, lighter in two hands then the Rapier in one, which was also a weapon meant to be used in combination with another, which for a beginner was not something to attempt. No Darling would be starting on the long sword.

"You needed to see me, Professor 'Her Majesty the White Queen?'" Raven asked, walked up to the pair as Nevermore peeked her purple little head out from her hiding hole.

"I require two things your dragon and your expertise regarding your mother's handiwork." Nevermore jumped out of the purse, growing to a looming height in the process as she growled at Darling who could be seen clearly holding a long sword. Raven smiled knowingly at the Charming girl, her advice from earlier having sunk in and Darling returned a appreciative glance at Raven, even as she entered the dirt field and stared down the Witch Princess's dragon.

"I'll leave you two to it then." Raven stated as she joined the White Queen to go somewhere private together.

Nevermore did her usual assessment of her opponent before she went into battle. Familiar resemblance to the two with visual magics from the pass training exercise, body thick with buffering spells, attire ill suited to fighting, if not for the blade would assume non combatant. But is combatant, and will be dispatched as ruthlessly as other two.

"Are you ready yet you big ugly lizard?" Darling asked adjusted her hair so that now the majority of it was flowing over her shoulder, ready to flick back at a moments notice.

Nevermore Growled, rose to a standing height on her tail, and fired a single bolt of fire as Darling charged. The dragon was confused when the fire bolt stopped briefly mid flight and allowed Darling to maneuver around it before it resumed it's course and struck nothing but dirt. Now Darling was much closer, her entire body bending as she slashed against the dragon, who only had to block with one of her wings. Darling remembered now, Smok the legendary dragon, Nevermore's grandfather if Blondie's oft questionable broadcasts were to be believed, who is said to have a bad habit of snapping the swords of those who fought against him against his scaly hide. Suddenly Darling realized it was a mistake to pick the lightest weapon she could. Beating this monster required striking power, so striking power she would use. Nevermore released a salvo of fire blasts as she took into the air. Darling twirled around on the spot, her hair arcing out in a fan, and now Nevermore knew she was far more dangerous then the other two when she found her wings refusing to flap and yet the ground came no closer. The Twirling Darling used her sword to bat the projectiles upwards at Nevermore, the dragon dodging them as soon as she was able to move again. Darling used the distraction to hit the armory again and grab a cross bow, Nevermore only looked at her like she was questioning the charming girl's sanity as she dive bombed her, by now understanding that no amount of ranged attacks would work on her. Darling flicked her hair again, something that made Nevermore sorely tempted to burn it off, before she spun around and slammed a crate on top of the dragon shrinking her down to a more manageable size. Nevermore resisted of course, violently, but in face of the extinguisher blades inside of the crate, could do little more than put up a right proper ruckus as Darling secured the lid over the crate. After her heart stopped threatening to jump out of her chest, a new feeling entering her as she realized that she just accomplished what the combined power of both of her brothers and two other so called 'heroes' couldn't. Pride. Genuine, honest to goodness pride.

* * *

"Are you positive?" The White Queen and Raven had arrived at the Habadashery and were now enjoying tea made by Maddie and crumpets by Ginger.

"Based on the symptoms people described, it's probably a weather based spell, manipulating the atmosphere to draw magic circles and bind enchantments to route and fix itself in place and effect in open defiance of the effects of Riddlish twisting it to suit their needs. As for what those needs are..."

"My mother was part of the joint research team with Ever After." Maddie cut in, replacements for their snacks in one hand above her head. "There's a memorial with her name on it in the courtyard of their palace."

"As we are both aware." The White Queen stated watching as the full tray replaced the empty one.

"Have I ever mentioned my gratitude for you sending her to me?" Raven asked smiling brightly at the girl she considered her best friend.

"That's not a normal response to someone trying to send a armed assassin into your bed room young lady." The White Queen stated scolding.

"And we have no room to talk about normal your majesty." Maddie stated teapot in hand as she topped off Raven's glass of pumpkin spice tea. "Point of pride if memory serves."

"Touche." The White Queen stated, noting the approach of Darling with crate in hand. "So how was the little fire breathing monster?"

"Exhilarating!" Darling gave the shaking crate to Raven.

The Witch princess bled her magic through the crate and it stopped shaking before she opened it. The full sized Dragon jumped out of the crate and released a snarl towards Darling before slinking off into the woods, and the four of them were soon greeted by the sight of terrorized woodland creatures running through the streets of the town.

"Think she's mad?" Darling asked still on her adrenaline high.

"Annoyed. If she was mad the forest would be on fire." Raven stated sipping tea.

* * *

 **Review Section** :

Wade: Well, Raven was planning to do that, but a lot more gentle, and a lot less likely to send her off into a spiraling depression.

Charlie: Thank you, cute chapters are all well and good. Well to normal person Apple is kinda scary in that polite 'I will kick your ass' kind of way. But Faybelle is already use to living with her mother, and she's a lot scarier then Apple is. And you need to spell check.

DJ: The more time Morgan spends around Raven, the more likely it is that she'll figure out that she's her mother, and the more likely it is that Raven will cut her off cold. Remember, Morgan is use to being struck down for every perceived weakness. Yes, but once she goes back inside of her mirror prison. They were childhood friends, being the daughter of your god mother can have that effect, then highschool happened and now we find ourselves here.

Guest: Apple still has some growing left do, but for now Apple went to cry herself to sleep while Raven took the boys down to the infirmary.


	28. Chapter 28

**Author's Note** : Admittedly this chapter came out a little darker then I had intended, so I rewrote a few lines to fix that. Lemme know what all of you think. Read, Review, Favorite and Enjoy!

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Chapter 28: You're Not Hiding Anything, Big Bad Wolves

 _"Why won't you just leave me alone!? What did I ever do to you to deserve this!? Did I not 'play my role?' Did you not get your 'happy ending' and 'charming prince?' The two of us are done! Now begone from my sight!"_

* * *

Apple awoke with a startle, looking around the room while breathing heavily. She quickly concluded that it was not her room, as neither her nor Raven had any taste for this much pink, though admittedly Gala was a comforting sight. Snoring from beside her quickly confirmed that this was Briar's room.

"Afternoon Sleepy head." Ashlynn Ella, Apple's cousin with brown hair and a blue sundress and roommate to Briar, stated walking into her room with a tray of what was likely Ginger's Apple Cakes and Maddie's cinnamon tea. "You enjoyed your nap?"

"What happened?" Apple asked rubbing the side of her head.

"Well, after Faybelle hit you with some truth bombs about what happened, I was listening in, don't judge me half the dorm was too, between your mom and Raven's you cried yourself into her her bosom." Ashlyn put the tray down on the bed and began poring Apple a cup. "Then Raven got us to bring her the bottle of sleeping potion she keeps in her sock draw and wow that thing is potent because she basically uncorked it under your nose and you were out cold, and she had us bring you here while she took the Charming brother's off to the Nurse's office, from what I heard she had a meeting with the White Queen so she shouldn't be back right now." Apple sat up and began rubbing Gala's belly while she thought about something for a few minuets.

"Ashlyn, I need to fix my make up." Ashlyn was slightly afraid of the glint in Apple's eye, the last time she saw that a hoard of pink gargoyles had blotted out the night sky, of course back then she had a smile on her face. "I have a important call to make and I'd really rather not raise any suspicions."

* * *

Later, Apple had taken to absent minded wandering through the halls on her way to her room, having just come from Briar's and Ashlyn's room to get her make up that was ruined by Faybelle's prank fixed. She had a lot of... things she had to think about right now. Things that she would be dealing with later when she was in a better mood for rational thought. For now and her current task though Apple's current mood was just fine, all a curtain of boiling rage and rolling fury as she made her way into her room, opening the door to reveal Raven who was sitting with Ramona and Cerise on their beds and a large cauldron between them.

"Uh Hi guys." Apple stated waving awkwardly, masterfully hiding her boiling fury, no reason to take it out on them. "What yah doing?"

"Shampoo." Raven stated indicating the cauldron. "You gave my entire supply away remember?"

Well more accurately Raven had allowed Apple to sample the bottle after she had asked about the custom brewed mixture made using the samples that her father would regularly send her. Said bottle mysteriously disappeared during their field trip with everyone returning smelling of witch.

"Raven needed someone to go into the woods and harvest some raw materials for her to make use of. In exchange I get something for my fur." Ramona stated eyes boring into Apple while she gestured for Cerise to remain seated.

"Didn't Raven just get a whole wack ton of potion ingredients on that trip and from her dad?" Apple asked looking at the pair confused. "Yes. Expensive ingredients that don't necessarily meet her requirements." The Gigan wolf replied cocking a brow suspiciously. "If you have a problem with us being here we can leave."

"No no I just left my mirror phone in here to charge." Apple stated defensively holding her hands up palms out in front of her.

"Where is..." Ramona looked down at the phone which was left to recharge on the bed she was sitting on before picking it up and tossing it in Apple's Direction who nimbly caught it. "Here yah go."

"Thanks. I need to go make a private call so I'll be back in a few minuets." Apple caught the glare the Gigan wolf shot her. "Or longer, I have to go make a few plans anyway." Apple stated as she closed the door and her feet audibly walked down the hall.

"So what did you two want to talk to me about?" Raven asked turning her attention to the Gigan wolf and her would be victim.

"We've... kinda been keeping a secret from the school..." Cerise started the conversation off rather awkwardly, scratching the back of her head and fidgeting in place.

"You mean that you two are sisters?" Raven commented licking a sample of the shampoo potion off of her finger, something that left the pair so stunned that they actually cringed, Cerise hard enough that her hood fell off to reveal wolf ears.

"How did you know?" Cerise half screeched paling in mortal terror.

"It was obvious." Raven replied in a dry tone of voice.

"Who else knows about this?" Ramona snapped all wolfish sharp teeth.

"Anyone who is smart enough can see the obvious family resemblance between the two of you." Raven stated before she decided she was satisfied with the mix.

"What we don't..."

"Both have brown hair with white streaks, grey eyes, white skin, similar facial features and are approximately the same height and build even though Ramona is nine month's older than you, just old enough that she's not your twin but is still in the same grade as you without you being skipped ahead or her being held back." Raven asked cocking her eyes with suspicion. "Really you should have taken more precautions, one of you should have at least dyed your hair." The two newly exposed sisters stared at each other in shock before looking back at Raven who had gotten a ladle out to bottle her potion. "You two are just lucky that this school is so fond of it's selective Ignorance."

"Selective ignorance?" Cerise asked looking confused.

"People around here ignore what doesn't necessarily follow what they believe to be established fact. Fact Cerise Hood is the daughter of Red Riding Hood." Raven explained gesturing to Cerise with her hand outstretched. "Fact Ramona Wolf is the daughter of the Big Bad Wolf." Raven stated gesturing to Ramona. "Fact, Red Riding Hood and the Big Bad Wolf are enemies."

"Grrr." Ramona let out a audible growl while she sat and thought in dissatisfaction. "Who, specifically, knows about us?"

"Guu..." Raven let out a audible sigh this time. "Blondie..." To Raven's blunt one worded reply Cerise fainted and Ramona bowled over overly dramatically defeated.

"We're doomed." The defeated Gigan wolf stated bluntly. "I've also already taken care of her." Ramona looked up suspiciously at Raven.

"Blondie is under the impression that your father has gone through a great deal of trouble to hide your secret, up to and including swallowing people whole and excreting their remains where no one will be able to find them a week later." Raven explained steeping her fingers. The truth was as far as she knew Mr. Bad Wolf hadn't done that, but if this secret was so important to them, then dropping a rumor here or there would help. Especially when said rumor made someone who made their living off of being terrifying slightly scarier. "He does have a reputation like that yah know."

"But that doesn't..." Raven just rolled her eyes at the pair as they confusedly went about the fact that they had what is likely the worst kept secret in the entire school.

"Shall we make a little wager that proves my theory of selective ignorance? If it doesn't work the way I intend I can say that I used my magic on you two."

Apple sat in the relative privacy in the girl's common room, her only company the sound of plaster as Mira went about her one woman war of renovations on the girl's dormitory. Apple had already contacted Joyful and requested to see her mother, the sound of her voice in her ear told her that the dwarf had succeeded in her task.

"Yes Apple sweetie?" Snow White's bell like voice asked prompting Apple to look down at the screen where her long black and grey locks could be seen. "Is there something the matter? You look upset?"

"The Detention Goblin has attempted to break into my and Raven's room several times the week past in a effort to steal Raven's belongings, or worst her dragon, the fact that we are now several stories off the ground in a building that is now under the sway of several layers of magical wards I suspect will prove to be of little deterrent. He has consistently proven himself either incompetent or uncaring as a educator, being far more concerned with trying to exploit the student body for his own profit at our expense. He represents the last remnants of a regime responsible for victimizing Raven's family for one reason or another and has made himself blatantly clear in holding a grudge against them. I will no more tolerate his continued presence at this academy then you would the assassins who came here to kill Raven." Apple stated in a perfectly executed voice of barely contained rage, only some of it aimed at the goblin.

"I will look into having the goblin removed, a Major step in this process will be finding someone who is both qualified and doesn't mind playing the role of alchemist teacher for the school." Snow White stated legitimately impressed by Apple's seething glare. "Is there anything else of concern you wish to talk about."

" _Plenty. Let's start with the insane witch that you are rumored to have bullied into a corner until she took to camping out in front of the Headmaster's office banging on his door screaming trying to get you to stop._ " Apple released a deep sigh calming herself down a touch and donning a smile. "Nothing that requires immediate attention. I don't wish to distract you from your duties mother." Which wasn't a lie, Apple certainly didn't want her mother distracted from obediently doing her job by her daughter ripping her a new one.

"Good bye sweetie. I love you!" Snow White punctuated her sentence by blowing her daughter a kiss.

"Bye Mom! See you Soon love you!" Apple stated mirroring her mother's gesture as the phone returned to being a mirror.

"So finally doing something about the little detention goblin are you?" Mira commented, wearing a disposable Timex suit as she hung wall paper in the common room, the way that it's symbol like pattern glowed dimly made Apple think of a enchantment. "Don't get me wrong, someone had to do something about him eventually."

"What are you doing now?" Apple asked suspicious on just how Mira got permission to do all of these renovations to the dormitory.

"I'm imbuing the walls with barrier magic, by the time I'm done this place will be a fortress." Mira explained gesturing around the room at the half hung wallpaper. "In either case the goblin will not be missed by many, but I don't see a quiet send off either."

"What does that mean?" Apple asked looking concerned.

"You are not the first to complain of the goblin, hopefully you will be the last." Saying that Mira was back to work making Apple look at her suspiciously.

"Hey guys." Raven stated coming down the stairs. "What you up to?"

"Plotting the demise of the detention goblin. You?" Mira asked cocking a suspicious brow at the other witch.

"Cerise and Ramona are helping me with a little experiment right now. Oh Ladies!" Letting out that cat call like voice the future members of the story of little red riding hood walked down the stairs and sat in front of Apple on the other couch.

"Okay..." Apple commented noting that Ramona looked uncharacteristically demure and Cerise angry about something. "Cerise is something wrong? You look mad at something." That did not improve the girl's mood any, and if Apple wasn't mistaken she seemed to be growling under her breath. "Ramona is everything okay?" The giant wolf in human form looked like a kicked puppy at Apple's question.

"Nothing, but I need to go pick up some hair dye." 'Ramona' stated letting out a sigh.

The two girls walked straight to the door, both of them giving Raven a notable amount of cash on their way by, and the witch giving them a length of parchment with writing on it, compared to the two girls going out the door Raven found herself resisting the urge to laugh as 'Cerise' slammed the door hard enough to shake the building.

"What was that about?" Apple asked brushing dust that fell from the ceiling off of herself.

"Really?" Mira asked before shaking her head in disbelief at Apple.

"They lost a bet, now they have to go pick a few things up for my History of Evil Magics class for me." Raven stated sitting down next to Apple with a satisfied swagger.

"Evil Magics? Is what they're picking up dangerous?" Apple asked sounding concerned. "No, but it will be by the time I'm done with it." Raven stated audibly cracking her neck.

"In either case I was wondering how the 'I'm not so evil' plan was going." The young witch princess asked cocking a suspicious brow.

"Well, Blondie's polls say that you got a lot of good will after our field trip." Apple stated holding up her mirror pad and with it a chart detailing the vast looking difference between before and after. "Letting everyone know who is responsible for their three meals a day was a pretty good move."

"They still don't wanna go anywhere near me do they?" Raven asked looking at Apple with a defeated look on her features. "Which probably means we're going back to square one once my project for Evil Magic is done."

"Is it really that bad?" Apple asked looking at Raven concerned.

"Let's just say for now I will be following in my mother's footsteps of breeding horrors." Raven made a exaggerated sigh while she got back up.

"Am I going to have to do any additional modifications to the dorm?" Mira asked looming over the couch with large paint roller at her side staring down Raven.

"Nothing that you haven't already been doing, but I will appreciate some strong seals and barriers on the extra pet carrier that Ramona is gonna bring back to the dorm though." Raven replied a small amount of fear trembling in her voice.

Mira cocked a interested brow before shrugging her shoulders and getting back to work.

"Is it really that bad?" Apple asked looking scared now herself.

"I'm about to take one of the most terrifying beings ever conceived by dark magic and attempt to make it harmless." Raven stated looking very serious. "Wish me luck." Raven walked away back up to the stairs, doubtlessly to await the return of whatever supplies she had fetched Ramona and Cerise to retrieve.

"So I heard a rumor somewhere that the Scar Backs make for pretty good teachers." Apple stated smiling sweetly at Mira as leaned on the back of the sofa.

"No." Mira stated flatly.

"No to..."

"No I'm not getting my people involved in a petty fight between Ever After and a Sociopathic goblin." Mira stated finishing the wall she was on.

"Oh come on, how is this different from what they usually do?" Apple asked almost at the point of begging. "I mean you guys taught that village..."

"A backwoods, dirt poor village barely with the capacity to feed itself how to read, write and scavenge. This on the other hand is a fancy prep school catering to the spoiled privileged wealthy elite in need of a new chemistry teacher which the majority of people are never going to need to learn from." Mira stated looking Apple a cold and uncompromising look in her eyes. "My answer is no."

Apple sunk back into her chair pouting angrily while new ideas went through her mind. Quickly Apple went to her speed dial and held the phone to her ear.

"Hello Grandma Jadis: I was wondering if I could ask you a small favor."

* * *

 **Review Section** :

Wade: It was an ability mentioned in the EAH books. Daring and Dexter were having a jousting match and their Father made Darling use her time stopping good looks to sabotage Dexter.

Charlie: She got a lot closer than any body else, then she realized that Raven wasn't her mother and now their best friends.

DJ: I don't have any plans for that right now, sorry.

Guest: Thank you, I plan to.


	29. Chapter 29

**Author's Note** : Every once in a while you get a review that fills you with a warm feeling inside, that makes you feel good about what you're writing and have wrote. This wasn't one of those reviews, the exact opposite in fact. Now I don't want anyone giving this particular reviewer any grief, he has given me some honest to goodness criticism, and in response to that criticism I have written into many of the chapters past what I like to call my director's cut. Chunks of relevant story line that I did not put in at first in order avoid the risk of violating Fan Fiction's limit on how long each individual chapter can be. So I spent the past week going back through my chapters and rewriting them in order to properly explain what is going on, because some people seem to be under the impression of that something did happen when it didn't. Read, Review, Favorite and enjoy!

* * *

Chapter 29: We Require your Aid, Magic Mirror

Once again the wee hours of the Morning were filled with the screeching of a particular goblin. As Apple looked up to the balcony preparing some especially unpleasant means of disposing of him she discovered he wasn't there. Apple took a brief moment to appreciate Mira's handiwork on the door leading into the balcony, hinges of Cardea, six over here, three on the door leading into the hallway, six in total on the doors leading into the dormitory, and a unknown number requested by various VIP's in the girl's dorm. With each new hinge installed the protective barrier around the dorm grew stronger, the goblin was wise to avoid this place, only the welcome could enter, and he was anything but. But back to the question in hand, Apple put on a bath robe, soon to meet the warm embrace of a bath anyway, and looked down to the front of the school to see the goblin making a fuss while suspended by two dwarfs.

"RELEASE ME AT ONCE!" The goblin shouted kicking and screaming, accent thicker than usual. "WHAT HAVE I DONE TO WARRANT BEING TREATED IN THIS MANNER?"

"The real question is what have you done that warrants you being treated differently." Apple lit up brightly when she saw the form of Jadis being wheeled towards the school, pushed by Raven's father Corvo. "I can't speak for the other students and graduates of this school but personally? I felt first hand your barely contained hatred of my family spending nearly every weekend of my school life inside of your classroom weaving gold for you for the most inane of reasons. A rather odd thing when you consider that it was my mother who secured your position at this school after you were removed from your position in the Goblin's Merchants guild. Then I hear how often you sent my daughter off into a corner to be tormented after most of your classes when she failed to correctly assemble the potion you instructed her in poorly relayed and outdated instructions. What was the insult you used? Schlechtester wasn't it? Though you weren't the one to come up with it, that alone I will give you." Jadis looked pointedly in the direction of the Headmaster with a look of barely contained rage and he legitimately winced. "And now I hear you are trying to break into my grand daughter's room? Now what has she done to earn that? Her dragon? The gifts she receives from her father?"

"Don't you dare...!"

"Quiet." Corvo punctuated the sentence by delivering a blow to the goblin's gut.

"Or has your cancerous greed finally consumed you to the point where you are willing to resort to simply robbing the royal families directly?" The goblin made a feral struggled against his restraints. "No, I suppose it doesn't matter. Out of respect to my mother I have tolerated you. But that tolerance is at a end." Apple smiled legitimately at seeing the goblin dragged away.

"YOU WILL PAY FOR THIS! YOU WILL PAY ALL OF YOU!" Apple quickly went over to where Raven was sleeping peacefully and shook her awake.

"C'mon Raven Jadis is here! Here c'mon!" Apple stated ripping the sheets free of Raven.

"Grandma-AAAH!" Raven shouted as Apple yanked her away to the bathroom, which Raven realized with true horror meant that they would be showering together.

* * *

Several students, a great many of whom were in their night wear still, came out and crowded to look at the sheer spectacle of their Chem-Myth-ry teacher being dragged away in chains cursing promises of revenge as the carriage drove away to take the goblin somewhere far less comfortable then where he had been staying. As the realization sunk in a cheer spread throughout the crowd as they all realized that one of the chief nightmares that hey faced on a day to day basis would be leaving and not returning, even as the Headmaster insisted they go back to their rooms to get some proper clothing on.

"GRANDMA JADIS!" Apple, fully dressed for the day, bolted pass her peers and nearly tackled the wheel chair bound witch. Nearly, then she realized how delicate she looked with eighty percent of her body covered in burns and ninety percent of that covered in cloth bandages, she froze up momentarily unsure about what she should do.

"You're never this considerate with me." Raven commented spitefully, still trying to get the water out of her hair after Apple's impromptu bath. "It's good to see you again Grandma." Raven stated crouching down and hugging the older witch. With a bit of hesitation, Apple repeated the action and gave the elder witch a hug.

"So how are my two favorite people today?" Jadis asked as she began maneuvering her chair through the handicap section of the stairway.

"Annoyed. I shared a bath in cold water this morning." Raven stated glaring at Apple venomously.

"Really Apple? Did you think that I would simply disappear after just arriving?" Jadis asked shaking her head in disappointment.

"Sorry, but I was so happy to see you again and the last time I saw you, you were..." Apple couldn't find the right words to describe Jadis without sounding impolite.

"Well in any case I'm mostly just playing delivery woman." Saying that Jadis gestured to a full body mirror that Corvo was taking the liberty of transporting into the school.

"A mirror?" Apple asked looking at the mirror in confusion.

"That's not just any mirror." Raven walked over to it and Corvo stood it up for her examine, a plate engraved at the bottom that filled her with dread. Schlechtester Shards. "This was my mother's." As if on cue a figure appeared in the mirror, she looked younger, darkened circles from lack of sleep had been covered with eye shadow. A laced corset and croptop combination made her breasts seemingly ready to pop out, red hair mixed with black before she had taken to dying it, trying to distance herself as much as possible. A kilt swayed above the presence of high heeled boots, and the coat made from the shed skin of a dragon made her appear all the bigger. "Hello." Raven stated nervously.

"So I was taken away from the Scarbacks." The mirror took one look at her surroundings. "And I'm back here again. Lovely." The mirror stated dripping sarcasm. "Why?"

"Raven, who or what, is this?" Apple asked looking at the vaguely familiar woman.

"Mirrors are our Knack Apple, when we stare at them long enough, sink enough magic in, occasionally something starts to stare back." Raven stated gesturing to the mirror.

"I belonged to the one these people called Schleshtester." The mirror stated before letting out a harrumph. "Least that's what she use to call me. Up until I was locked away when they stuffed her in a padded cell, said I was a bad influence."

"Schlest...?" Apple was equal parts confused and unable to properly pronounce the difficult Riordan word.

"It means 'Worst One.'" Raven stated looking up at the mirror. The two of them never met, but they recognized each other. "It belonged to my mother, both the name and the reflection, in her senior year here."

"Huzzah." The mirror rolled her eyes at Raven. "Someone finally came out and said it. It doesn't sound nearly as intimidating when you don't hide behind the language barrier does it?" Suddenly, as if they had a grand audience the woman in the mirror turned around on the spot doing a mock celebratory dance. "The Worst Evil Queen in history is back to the wretched hell hole from which she was spawned! Why?"

Jadis put her good hand on Raven's shoulder nodding to her for her to move out of her way.

"We... this school needs your help." Jadis took a deep breath as she continued on with what she was about to say.

"Hell! No!" The Mirror snapped, amethyst eyes turning red from sheer rage.

"Even if I told you that your daughter needs your help?" Jadis asked legitimately wincing at the image of her daughter shot her.

"I never seen this girl before in my life." The Mirror snapped accusingly towards Raven, the young witch feeling legitimately hurt by the mirror's lack of a familiar tie. "The only thing that she really needs is to get as far away from this hole as possible!"

"I wasn't talking about your niece." As if on cue a familiar read head walked into the hallway giving a report to Jadis.

"As you requested my liege, the full list of all of the security augmentations I have made to the dormitory, and all the ones I intend to make as well."

"Mira." Mira straightened up fearfully before turning around and facing the woman in the mirror. "What the hell are you doing here?" Mira took the liberty of explaining to Raven where the last name Shards came from, that she had been raised by a magic mirror that worked with the Scar Backs. Now that mirror stood before her. "I said, what the bleeding hell are you doing here!?"

"Mira has volunteered, as a member of a respected warlock family in service to the royal family of Riordan, to..."

"Save me the bull you god damn cripple!" Schleshtester Shards snapped patience running out. "What are you doing here!?"

"I am trying to protect my future monarch and by extension my home land." Mira stated looking her adoptive mother in the eye.

"Oh so you're going to whisk yourself and said future monarch away from a school that indoctrinates young children into being a picture perfect image of their blighted ancestors?" Schleshtester asked in a understanding tone.

"No." Mira replied flatly.

"Then why the hell shouldn't I be angry!?" The mirror snapped like her previous understanding tone was a lie, which to be fair it probably is.

"As I said, for country and queen, in that order." Mira stated pacing back and forth. "Royal lessons that teach students how to faint at the first sign of danger. Warrior classes that teach only 'honorable' combat against equally 'honorable' foes, and would likely break down begging for mercy at the first sight of a real threat. Not to mention, an entire class dedicated to teaching people how to be as psychotically destructive as possible, then scolding them and locking them away when they do that. This school does not have a good reputation, as either a safe place for children nor a effective educational locale." Mira stated pacing in front of the magic mirror.

"You inspire such great confidence in this place's ability." Schleshtester stated rolling her eyes.

"Which is precisely why a effort is being made to change that. Professor White Queen is currently in charge of royal studies, and she has made it abundantly clear that she is dedicating the class to teaching students how to run the lands by which they are in charge competently. Professor Charming has assigned his students the task of defeating the resident pet dragon of Miss Queen for their lessons." Mira stated looking at Raven's purse knowingly.

"Really Raven?" Jadis just shook her head, sorry for the poor unfortunate heroes.

"Mrs. Yaga, for all of her complaints of being overworked, is a fine magical instructor and on par with any of the magical academies in Riordan. Mr. Badwolf is doing a fine job of rallying his students on the proper methods of scaring off interlopers." Mira took back the schematics of the defenses she had been putting up that she had given to Jadis and opened them up in front of the mirror to see. "The dormitories and the school itself has been undergoing renovations to fix the glaring issues of it's inadequacies to protect it's students."

"I can think of a few 'renovations' that should be made." The mirror woman looked behind her, not that she could see what was behind her but she knew he was there, watching the conversation with interested brows waiting for a decision to be made.

"Lovely." Milton went over to the speakers on the nearest wall and pulled down a microphone. "Attention students: While our new Chem-Myth-ry Teacher settles in today all Chem-Myth-ry classes are canceled. That is all." Several cheers went throughout the school at the sound of the unexpected free period while the Headmaster walked in front of the mirror. "Hello..."

"Miserabel gut für nichts Scheiße!" The mirror cursed upon seeing the Headmaster.

"I can see I'm un-welcomed here, I will leave the task of convincing her to you." The Headmaster said to Mira before walking away from the growling woman in the mirror.

"Then you have your task cut out for you!" The woman in the Mirror stated turning around with a harrumph clearly intent on ignoring whatever it was that Mira intended to do.

"Speaking of classes I have to drop off my thesis for Evil Spells." Saying that Raven went to her locker, dressed herself in full body protective gear, got out a ten foot long pole attached to a hook, and used it to hook the pet carrier scrawled with magic circles which at the sudden movement started rumbling with movement and snarling, as if whatever manner of nightmarish beast inside was trying to break out.

"That's a thesis?" Apple asked moving behind Mira on instinct.

"It's a stage prop. I need to prove that my knowledge of dark magic is both sufficient in casting and dispelling that I can get out of it in interest in taking classes that I actually want." Raven stated before starting a long walk to the Class room.

"Shall we go with her?" Milton asked dragging the mirror with him.

* * *

When Raven arrived inside of Evil Spells she placed the pet carrier on Baba's desk. She would make a snarky comment on Raven so infrequently making a appearance in her class but she was more intrigued and concerned about the snarling ball of rage on her desk.

"And what do we have here?" Mrs. Yaga asked leaning sideways over her desk to examine whatever manner of creature was inside of the cage. She didn't know what she expected to see, but a squirrel was not it. "What the...?" Suddenly the little rodent in question leaped at the bars attempting to tear the nose from Baba Yaga's face. "Raven, an explanation please."

"Last I checked one of our chief assignments was to take a creature from the magical forest, and corrupt it with dark magic, before disposing of it, either removing the curse, or killing it in a humane manner and in that case, making something of use with the remains." Now Raven gestured to the cage, where the most violent squirrel that Baba Yaga had ever seen was located, the Headmaster alongside Mira and the Mirror woman looked down at the cage from the back of the class in shocked surprise, ideas forming as to what it was. "This I have accomplished, though I will admit that the creatures inside that cage didn't come directly from the forest nor were I the one to collect them. Were they taking your class as well, I would insist that Cerise and Ramona receive do credit for their work." Baba waved Raven off, instead focusing on another matter.

"Creatures? As in more then one?" Baba Yaga asked looking inside the cage again and only seeing the rabid squirrel that on closer inspection appeared to have been cut open down the middle and stitched back up. "You didn't?" The elder witch seemed legitimately fearful at this new piece of information.

"I did." Raven replied letting out a sigh before snapped her fingers. Suddenly the squirrel was turned inside out and replaced with the form of a salmon, bouncing around and trying it's damnedest to remove the cage from the desk. A second snap of her Fingers and the salmon was replaced by a bird, flapping it's wings to the point of barely being able to be seen and trying to push the cage off of the desk. Finally a third snap returned the creature to the form of a squirrel, rabid foam and all. "It's a skin walker, a High Level undead created using the skins of animals of the land sea and air. Ramona got them from a taxidermy shop in town." Not that one could think of it as a high level creature now, stuck in the form of the most harmless creatures Raven could find, something that would change the moment it got it's grubby little claws on something from something actually dangerous and turned into that.

"Well that's one part of your assignment finished." Baba stated looking down at the cage a disturbed look on her face. "I will be blunt, I don't want any of this thing to survive. Kill it. Kill it now."

"Gladly." Snapping her fingers again the cage was set aflame, the creature inside screeching even as the cage burned under blue flame. "Having a light based removed Knack gives me access to some purifying power, though admittedly it's not one of my specialties and holy would be better." Raven put the flame out again, opened the cage to pull out the mixed messed of animals skins within.

"You will learn, as it will come in handy should you decide to try and bully the school into submission again." Baba Yaga stated waving the witch off. "The last part of your assignment if you will."

"Normally a skin walker is a lot bigger, made by individuals who wish not to prove that they have the knowledge but rather who wish to use the creatures to wreak havoc upon their enemies. As such there is a particular cloak that can be made from their skin's, the blue print passed down throughout my family." Shaking out the mash of fur's with her hands it was imbued with magical power and rolled out into and Handkerchief sized cloth. "But I can use that knowledge to make something out of this." Rolling the cloth up Raven ran her finger around it and produced a small sweater that was miniature dragon sized. "It retains the ability to take on the traits of those it comes into contact with, for example." Nevermore jumped out of Raven's purse, her ability to alter her size made getting into the makeshift sweater a bit easier. "It makes the coming winter for my pet dragon a little easier." Saying that, Raven tossed Nevermore into the air and dragon and clothing alike grew until she was at a size suitable enough to frighten grown men off. "Headmaster." Raven stated directing her attention to the back of the Room where the Headmaster had elected to watch the fruits of the deal he made with Raven. "I've created a high level undead and equipment piece from that. I trust this is sufficient for me to exempt from this class for the rest of my time here?"

"Hmm." The Headmaster stroked his mustache as he pondered the situation at hand.

"What is that?" Raven asked, placing her hand around her ear as if trying to hear the Headmaster better. "It is not sufficient? Well if you insist there is something else I can do." As Raven said this she took a frightening looking blade out from a sheath in her boot and brought it to her wrist. "Ferrum et sanguinem in hoc te accerso ..."

Suddenly, fearfully, Baba Yaga ran over to Raven and put her hand around her mouth and pulled the blade away from her wrist.

"EXEMPT HER FROM THE DAMN CLASS BEFORE SHE KILLS US ALL!"

From that day forward no one dared to bring up Raven not coming to Evil Spells again. Amazing how quiet all the screamers got when they had something to actually fear.

* * *

 **Review Section** :

Lelcar: You thought this story was dark? Dude I wrote two stories featuring the actual Grim Reaper as the main character who runs around eviscerating people. I appreciate your words, and if you don't want to continue to read I won't blame you, but I will appreciate your criticism.

DJ: Hmm. I might have something in mind. But yes, Red Riding Hood was Morgan's roommate, and she is also the wife to Big Bad.

Wade: Like I said it was obvious, I have a head cannon that everyone in the school knows already, and everyone is just humoring them to make them feel better. She will, once the mess with the slightly psychotic mirror blows over.

Charlie: Not Raven's Grandma, her mother's mirror as you might have noticed.


	30. Chapter 30

**Author's Note** : And now we take a break from the main story line, tis the season and all that jazz.

* * *

Chapter 30: Merry Christmas Evil Queen

A young girl, bundled head to toe in thick purple winter gear, was in the midst of padding down the final touches on a snow man that she had been working on topping it off through the use of a witches hat. A small black dragon flew down from the nearby rooftop and landed on her shoulder as someone from behind called out to them.

"Black birdie, are you ready for our work?" Raven turned around and faced the sound of the soft cooing.

Raven's mother Morgan was dressed in a long fur coat and carrying a bundle under one of her arms consisting of a stone ax that had been wrapped in a white cloth.

"Okay Mommy!" Raven reached up and pulled the hat off of the snow man's head and put it back on her own head before following her mother into the woods.

Morgan looked up at the trees above her while melting a path through the snow until she found what she was looking for, a yew tree.

"Get ready to catch the branch." Morgan instructed removing the white cloth from the bundle and handing it to her daughter. While Raven wrapped either end of the cloth around her arms in order to use the sheet to catch the branch while Morgan applied magic to her hands, and they turned hairy, with her fingernails lengthened and sharpened into a set of cat claws. Putting the ax into her teeth Morgan used her new found set of claws to dig into and climb the tree. "I'm going to cut the branch now." Morgan took the ax from her mouth and with a single swipe chopped the branch off, dropping it below and landing on the cloth Raven was currently holding. "We need to increase the potency of the branch by wrapping mistletoe around it as well." Raven nodded her head as Morgan and she walked back to their cabin on the edge of the woods. "We rely on our neighbors kindness in our day to day lives Hraban, it is important that we show them our appreciation."

As Morgan was saying that, she suddenly heard the howls of a wolf coming from not too far away. Quickly Morgan grabbed Raven and dived into the nearby snow bank taking refuge behind a tree and pulling out a single bladed wand.

"Now now, there's no need for that." Morgan looked around the corner to see a tall man with brown hair and a white streak going through it. Joining him were a young girl similar to Raven dressed in a red cloak, and a brown wolf cub with a streak of white hair on a leash.

"Godmother wolf don't scare me like that." The man called wolf helped Morgan to her feet who was still protectively hugging Raven, though now she maneuvered the younger girl to more securely hold onto her.

"Sorry about that, the little one still has self control issues." The man called wolf stated leaning down and scratching the wolf on her ears.

"I know this one would be trouble." Morgan stated sighing in despair. "From the moment you transformed inside of your mother's womb and I had to give her a C-section I knew you were going to be a huge pain in my butt." Thankfully, Morgan had made sure that the couple took the appropriate steps with the other one.

"Well it is normal for a werewolf to stay in that form for the first few years of their life." Mr. Wolf stated with a casual shrug. "In any case we're meeting Ruby at your place."

"We still need mistletoe for the Yew log." Morgan stated cocking a brow at the greying man before her.

"Is that all? Cerise hold onto Ramona for me would you?" Wolf handed his human looking daughter the leash while hand her hand over to Morgan to hold onto. Jumping through the air he made a seamless transition into the big bad wolf. The giant wolf ran off in a blur, his sense of smell locking onto the plant he needed before turning back into human form, since mistletoe is a poisonous plant, and quickly carrying it back to Morgan and instantly reverting to human form. "Will there be anything else?" Wolf asked with a chuckle.

Morgan just rolled her eyes and led to three back to her cabin in the woods where yet another person was waiting for them.

"Sorry I'm late." The tall woman dressed in a red cloak apologized while brandishing two wild turkey's. "It's so hard to find some turkey around these parts. Why do you live this far away from civilization anyway Morgan?"

"Because I hate the city." Morgan replied walking over and giving her old friend a one armed hug. "It's good to see you again Ruby." Morgan went over and opened the door for her guests. "You lot can come in now." Morgan stated and at once the family moved inside.

It was a humble abode, two large cauldrons took up most of the kitchen area, one marked 'potions' and the other 'Food.' A large couch gave way to open space end with a large mirrored wall and a staff hanging above it, with a wave of Morgans arm the mirrors gave way to a wintery landscape featuring a talking snowman. Immediately the three children were dressed for the much warmer indoors and sat down in front of the mirror watching the wintery special.

"I'll prep the Yew Log." Morgan stated holding out her hand and the staff flying into it. "You start working on dinner."

"Maybe I'll wait a little longer this year, let Titania pull her fair share." Ruby stated her lips curling into a devious smirk.

"Yah no, I've tasted her cooking." Morgan stating handing Ruby the knife. "Start with the turkey, I've just got to finish with the Yew log."

"At least Corvo brings the tree." Wolf stated as he expertly used claws to rip vegetables for the stuffing into pieces.

"And Titania brings the decorations." Morgan stated using a knife to shave the bark from the branch. "Now for the Mistletoe." Morgan wrapped the berry vine around the shaved branch. "And finally the finisher." The Magic flowed from Morgan through her staff and into the length of wood transforming it into a wand. "Now to burn this, I don't Fancy Cailleach showing up for Christmas dinner."

"What a coincidence, I need wood for the fire." Ruby stated directing Morgan's attention to the bottom of the the food cauldron.

Morgan just rolled her eyes in response. In addition to the newly crafted wand, Morgan took several logs from outside and threw them underneath the food cauldron, then using the staff she shot a ball of fire at the wood pile and at once the cauldron was red with heat.

"Where did you get that thing anyway?" Ruby asked chopping the head off of the naked turkey.

"I made it as part of mine and Corvo's wedding ritual." Morgan looked up to the ceiling as she thought about it for a moment. "I wove together three branches of oak, elder and Yew then I wrapped it in Holly, Mistletoe and Ivy, and attached to the top a chunk of amber containing a ancient ancestor of the Billywig, reanimated through necromancy inside of it's jeweled prison."

"Do not speak to me about Billywig's." Morgan looked looked over Wolf's shoulder and saw the familiar form of a seven foot tall fairy with a small light buzzing around her head. "Faybelle, go watch the mirror with the other ones." At once the little fairy flew over to the couch and with a burst of magic the little light was replaced with a young girl who looked to be the same age as the others.

"When somebody goes through the trouble of creating a protective magic barrier twenty layers thick around their home it's polite not to compromise them by using brute force to break through anyway." Morgan stated waving the stone knife in her hand with a accusatory glare.

"Now. Shall we talk about the incident?" Titania asked looking the group over.

"What are you talking about?" Morgan asked using a knife to chop a bundle of carrots for the purpose of stuffing them into the turkey.

"The part where you snarled at Weiss like a animal before running off in a cloud of black magic." Titania stated noting the way that Morgan slammed the butcher's knife into the cutting board hard enough to lodge the blade in the cutting board. "Is there something you wanna talk to us about?"

"No." Morgan half growled before picking up a potato masher and using it to pulp vegetables with enough force to shake the cabin.

"Morgan we're just..."

"I SAID I'M FINE!" This time the witch slammed the masher hard enough to break it, smokey magic coming out of her sleeve. "Ha, ha. I need to go cool my head." Saying that the witch left the kitchen through the door leading outside.

Both of the women looked at Wolf knowingly, he glared at them with look of 'this is your fault not mine' they replied with 'we know, but there are two of us and one of you' and soon Wolf was following Morgan out of the door, and was soon greeted by the sight of Morgan who had stuck her head in the nearest snow bank.

"Usually people mean something a little less literal when they saw that they are gonna go cool their head." Wolf stated smirking at Morgan with a wolfish grin.

"Usually when people invite you into your home during the holidays you don't treat their kindness by verbally ambushing them and ganging up on them." Morgan replied giving off a contemptuous glare towards her old friend.

"Mutt face." Wolf turned around to see a man whose face had been covered in a ski mask, scarf and snow goggles. More important than that however was the ten foot tall pine tree that looked like it had been ripped directly out of the ground. "Get."

The man demonstrating impressive superhuman strength ordered directing him back into the cabin. Wolf obeyed the man in the mask though he went for the window, a window that was immediately blocked by the pine.

"I don't like em." Wolf stated leaning against the back wall in a foul mood. "He smells wrong."

"Maybe, but Morgan does love him, and he's the father of her child." Ruby stated stuffing vegetables into the turkey.

"Have either of you ever seen his face before?" Wolf asked looking at the women suspiciously. "Who on Earth is that paranoid?"

* * *

Outside of the cabin, Morgan was inspecting the tree with a glare.

"Didn't I tell you to pick up a plastic tree Corvo?" Morgan asked looking at her husband with blatant suspicion.

"I was, but on my way to the city this great big huge tree came down in front of me, and you were the one who said that these kinds of things were meant to be interpreted as a blessing from the gods." Corvo replied shrugging his shoulders.

"Hmm." Morgan took one look at the tree before tearing her stone ax out of her chopping block. "It's too big, and the roots are in the way." Morgan stated as she went to work on the tree violently swinging the ax.

"If you don't mind me saying my sweet something seems to be bothering you." Corvo stated observing Morgan chopping roots with increasingly violent enthusiasm.

"I'm fine!" Morgan snapped going through a entire root in one swing.

"Of course you are dear."

"After all why should I feel upset that Snow Bloody White has dropped in on me out of the blue!"

"Ah I see."

"Has apparently been looking for me ever since highschool!"

"Go on."

"And went back home spewing out water works about how mean I was being getting me and my daughter as far away from that nightmare factory as fast as I can and call me the bad guy for doing so! AGAIN!" Morgan slammed her ax into the tree hard enough that a foot long chunk of it simply snapped off in a pile of wood chips. "Ha Ha. WRAAAGH!" Morgan suddenly spun around and threw the ax into a rock several feet away, whirling blackness all the way along. "SHE HAS NO RIGHT! I AM BETTER, I'VE FINALLY STARTED TO HEAL! SHE HAS NO RIGHT TO COME BACK INTO MY LIFE, MY FAMILY'S LIFE, AND RUIN IT ALL AGAIN!" Morgan snarled, and it was a snarl too demon eyes and inch long fang's et all, blood red smoke and black as darkness shadow started spewing out of her frame like sweat as she breathed heavily.

"Feel better yet?" Corvo asked tilting his head at his wife.

"No." Morgan stated sitting down, with Corvo sitting down next to her. "I know her, I know when she wants something, I know when she wants to make me suffer."

"You said you considered her a sister once." Corvo said sitting down next to Morgan.

"Once." Morgan stated looking up to the sky. "You don't do the things she did, say the things she said, to your sister." Morgan sucked in a deep ragged breath and exhaled into her hands. She killed those feelings of familiarity with the other woman long ago, killed those memories of someone who was just as scared as she was out of pure maddening survival, someone who had done things just as bad as what she did for similar reasons.

"Are you going to be okay?" Corvo asked patting Morgan on her back.

"No." And it wasn't the firm angry and authoritative no he was use to either. In fact it sound like someone who was very hurt, very scared, and very vulnerable right now.

"Your mother is never going to let you out of these woods at this rate." Corvo sighed in despair.

"Good." Morgan snuffled while she hugged Corvo's arm to her form. "I hate the city, the magic there leaves a bad taste in my mouth, and all the spirits are broken and twisted."

"Sure, and I'll just drop Hraban off at school every morning and bring her back every afternoon." Corvo could only sigh in response to Morgan's statement. "I'm going back inside, you want to come with?"

"I'd like to cry alone for a little while if it's all the same to you." Morgan replied snuffling.

"Alright, I'll send Hraban out with some Coco in a few moments." Corvo got up and picked up a disk of wood as he went before he went into the cottage.

"How'd it go?" In response to Wolf's question Corvo held the wood disk up to his neck, as if imagining it was around his neck. Then Corvo walked through the living room and held the wooden disk that was around wolf's neck against the chimney.

"Daddy, what are you doing?" Raven asked looking over to her father.

"Just getting some decorating ideas flowing. What do you think?" Raven came over and Corvo picked her up to give her a eye level look at the mantle.

"I dunno, it looks kinda plain." Raven explained shrugging her shoulders.

"Hmm. True. I suppose we'll just have to add something to it." Corvo replied before putting his daughter down. "I can see that your mommy hasn't come back in yet."

"But won't she get cold without her coat?" Raven asked tilting her head.

"That is a excellent point! Why don't you get that, and I'll make her some hot coco and you can take them both outside to her." Corvo explained while he went back to the kitchen.

"That bad?" Titania asked cocking a brow at Corvo.

"I know that you are attempting to be clever, making my wife talk about the chip on her shoulder. Don't. She talked enough about it in Wonderland, in therapy, when she was suppose to, to sympathetic ears that are meant to provide guidance and counseling to troubled souls. Not to engage in idle gossip." Corvo stated in a growl. "Morgan needs to heal, which means that she doesn't need her wounds torn open!"

"Her wounds were already torn open." Ruby stated checking on the turkey that was cooking faster in the magical cauldron. "We need to know how much, so that we can help her."

"Which is also the reason why you all got me to talk to her for you." Corvo stated sighing as he finished two mugs of hot liquid. "I'm not her psychiatrist."

"What's a sichochist?" Raven asked, fulled bundled and her mother's fur coat slung over her shoulder.

"That is a person that you go to talk about what's bothering you sweetie." Corvo stated bending down and passing his daughter the tray of hot chocolate.

"So it's like you then?" Raven asked tilting her head.

"Sure sweetie, you can come and talk to me about anything that bothers you." Raven looked to the door pointedly before turning back to face Corvo.

"But Mommy can't talk to you?" Raven asked looking confused.

"She can, I like to believe she wants to, but talking about it scares her." Corvo stated leading his daughter to the door.

"But nothing scares mommy! She's the bravest person in the whole world!" Raven emphasized her point by spreading her arms wide, the tray with two mugs on it magically floating to the ground.

"That is very true." Corvo stated picking up both his daughter and the tray of mugs. "But bravery is meaningless when you are not afraid."

"Isn't being afraid a bad thing?" Raven asked looking confused. "Fear is one of the gods greatest gifts. When people are afraid, their bodies are driven to new levels, witches like you start generating huge amounts of magical power. You are at your strongest when you are afraid. Remember that."

* * *

"It was the day after when it happened." Raven stated, sitting in her room at the school, Apple sitting next to her. "We were unwrapping gifts, me, Ramona, Cerise and Faybelle when the news came on." Raven snuffled and wiped tears from her face. "The castle that my mom grew up in burned down, and my grandma was in it when it happened. Mom ran off the first thing after the news." Apple started rubbing circles into Raven's back, where deep scars had been carved into her body. "I don't remember what happened after that, Dad was running around trying to figure out who did it, mom had locked herself away in her study trying to find a way of helping grandma. And When I woke up after it all happened a week later my back was covered in scars and every one was saying that mom went nuts and attacked Wonderland." Raven curled up into a ball now shivering, clearly she was still scared of whatever it was that happened. "I remember what my dad told me that night. A witch is never stronger then when she's afraid." Raven looked Apple directly in the eye as she asked a very relevant question. "So what is my mother afraid of? What was wrong with her that she didn't want to talk about it?"

"And what drove her to attack Wonderland, and who carved those scars into your back?" Apple asked patting Raven on her back.

"They're magic letters, spelling out my name Hraban Konigan the Third. According to Grandma Jadis it was... my mother's hand writing." Raven took a deep breath in with the last statement.

"But... why?" Apple asked looking shocked with the realization. "An anchor, she bound something not only to my physical form but my spiritual as well. What it is no one seems to be able to figure out, that scares me more than anything." Because with the unknown, not only had you need to deal with what it was, but what it wasn't too.

* * *

 **Review Section** :

DJ: Thank you. She'll have to get to know Raven a little better I'm afraid, right now she's in the state of 'I am her subject and she is my queen mode.'

Wade: A little bit of difficulty, but nothing Raven's not gonna be able to handle.

Charlie: Mmhm. Huzzah. I'll be sure to let Apple know that.


	31. Chapter 31

**Author's Note** : Merry Christmas! Read, Review Favorite and Enjoy!

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Chapter 31: It is time to Duel, Magic Mirror

Raven was sitting on the balcony leading into her room, that was one class she need gone done with, now she just needed to get rid of the other one, General Evil. Even though she thought that she also noted she had a lot of work to do after that. Between creating a top tier undead, nearly summoning some manner of inter dimensional monster, and previous acts of magic it would be harder then ever to convince people to drop the whole Evil Queen business. And she still had to create a pass for general evil, which in turn required a true act of malevolence on her part, but none of that came anywhere close to her new Chem-Myth-ry teacher.

"So as I understand it." Schlechtester the Mirror started, rubbing her temples as she sucked in a breath long and hard at the nonsensical situation that had just been explained to her a few moments ago. "You have to prove that you would make for the best Evil Queen ever, in order to not have to become the Evil Queen?"

"Yep. Pretty much." Raven stated letting out a sigh of frustration. "This school is just as mad as it was when your mother and I went here." Schlechtester stated letting out a sigh.

"Well it is changing for the better." Raven stated prompting the mirror to shoot her a serious look.

"The number one problem, that in turn led to your mother creating a thing like me out of sheer survival, is still here." Schlechtester stated narrowing a glare at Raven. "Your mother was way too merciful on that old man, if it was me..."

"Which is the reason why it wasn't you." Raven stated staring the mirror straight in the eye. "Now, are you going to help, or are you going to continue to be stubborn?"

"Stubborn is the only thing that keeps witches alive girl!" The mirror snapped in a harsh tone.

"Come on. Free period's almost over, I need to get you to the next class." Raven stated manhandling the mirror which could only let out a frustrated groan to the witch. "I mean after all, Stubborn is the only thing that keeps witches alive."

* * *

Sparrow was hiding behind some shrubbery, bow and arrow in hand as he peered through the leaves. He shook in fear as a bolt of fire torched the leaves behind him, and looked around to see the angry black dragon that gave him nightmares. And Nevermore snorted steam into his face.

"Nice dragon..." Sparrow's compliment was rewarded with a blast of fire launching him through the air and sailing over the Muse-ic class in the next field over. Schlechtester could only shake her head in disappointment.

"So this is your idea of safe? Your guard, has been requisitioned by the school in order to bully their incompetent heroes." The mirror asked gesturing to Sparrow as he landed inside of a tuba.

"Nevermore is right there, and even if they don't look like it, these guys are being trained as fighters." A second explosion launched a chard Dexter at Raven's feet. "They just need a little bit of polishing."

"Help...!" Nevermore grabbed Dexter by his foot and proceeded to begin tossing him around like a rag doll.

"A lot of polishing." Raven explained, pleased to note that she had made a flower blossom with the sound of her guitar.

"How long do you honestly intend to keep up with this farce?" Schlechtester asked looking at Raven, which prompted curious looks from her classmates.

"As long as I have to." Raven replied idly tuning her guitar.

* * *

"Who here can tell me the largest producer of edible food stuff's on the continent?" Professor 'Her Majesty the White Queen' asked pointer stick being used as a cane while she gestured to the map next to her. Apple was the first to raise her hand in the air. "I know you know Ms. White let's see if anyone else pays attention to my class." To this Statement Raven also raised her hand in the air. "Yes you too Ms. Queen. Anyone else?" No one else seemed content to answer. "Well two students aren't bad." Thus the White Queen spun around and wrote instructions across the Chalk board for the class. "So for the rest of you: your next homework assignment you will give me a detailed report on where the food served in the cafeteria comes from..." The classroom groaned in response to this statement "as well as how you came to this conclusion, and the unique properties inherited in the food because of that." It was at that point in time that the White Queen spun around and pointed her pointer at the pair of Apple and Raven accusingly. "And if I find out that either of you simply gave them the answers, I will personally see to it that neither of you see the light of after school daylight again for a week. Am I understood."

""Yes Your Majesty the White Queen."" Both girls replied monotonously.

"Dismissed." The White stated already with her next target in sight.

"So, even your teachers admit that there's nothing here for them to teach you." Schlechtester stated shaking her head in sheer disappointment. "Why are you still here?"

"Well it's not like I haven't learned nothing while I was here." Raven stated packing up her books for her next class. "For starters Mrs. Yaga has me on trying to master holy power."

"That's not learning something new that's the natural progression of events!" So snapped the irate Mirror. "You have a mirror knack! From there you have Light as a Removed Knack! And after that you have Holy power as a Twice Removed Knack! You could learn that at home!"

"Perhaps, but what about having friends?" Apple asked getting up next to Raven. "I mean, being shut inside the house all day might be good for studying but what about social interaction?" To this question the Mirror just started to break out in laughter. "What's so funny?" Apple asked looking confused at the woman in the mirror who was cackling like a mad woman.

"Apple, I've got friends back home, you do realize this right?" Raven asked looking at Apple with a brow cocked.

"Oh." Apple on the other hand was kicking herself for having made such a stupid assumption. "You... really don't need to be here do you?"

"Not for most conventional reasons no." Raven admitted letting out a sigh.

"What is she doing here?" The White Queen asked stalking up to the trio as they continued to converse about Raven's personal life.

"These two have been trying to convince me to sign on as the school's Potions master all day." The mirror stated gesturing to Raven and Apple. "They haven't succeeded."

"Good. We don't need any more mopy emo nut jobs running around here! This is a high school we've already got too many of those!" The White Queen stated her eyes pure challenge.

"Oh great you again. Go pester someone else you pain in the butt!" Schlechtester snapped at the White Queen leveling a annoyed glare.

"Oh what's the matter, the first of Morgan's monsters can't take a little bit of criticism?" The White Queen asked smirking knowingly at the mirror.

"I'm warning you woman!" Before the pair's insults were able to escalate any further Raven pushed the mirror out of the class room with Apple chasing after them.

"What was that all about?" Apple asked looking confusedly at Raven who was doing everything in her considerable power to run away as quickly as she could. "The two of them sound like they hate each other." Apple asked quickly catching up to Raven as she pushed the mirror to their next class.

"The White Queen is a old friend of Morgan's." The woman made of glass stated with a smug look on her face.

"You two don't sound to friendly." Apple commented scratching her chin. "In fact from what I understand Mrs. White Queen hates Raven's mom."

"Respect would be a better word for it." Raven stated looking slightly exhausted at having avoided a close situation. "They are cousins after all."

"Wait what?" Apple asked her face scrunching up in confusion.

"Wasn't it obvious?" Raven asked cocking a suspicious brow. "White Queen? Queen Family? None of this occurred to you?"

"No it's just... how?" Apple asked her brain unable to process this new information she had just been handed.

"Way back when people were just learning that Wonderland was a thing, it was less of a land and more one giant mass of unstable magical primordial soup." Raven stated scratching her chin and trying to come up with the best way to phrase the next sentence.

"After they were done defending their lands from you idiotic magicless beings they decided to ban together to fix their own problems." Raven was about to make a remark about being sensitive to Apple but then she saw her unfazed look, almost as if she already knew there was a war to end wars between the magical and non magical folk, one that the latter lost.

"Right. One of these problems that Wonderland faced was that it was too unstable for the people to live there and well... live. The solution proposed by the then Evil Queen was to create a bond between the land and Wonderland's royal family's, like the one back home, so plans were made and she ended up marrying off second child of the Riordan royal family, a son, off to the heads of the royal families... all six of them."

"Ohh." Apple visibly winced at that statement. "I take it that Men aren't quite thought of the same in Riordan as they are in other kingdoms?"

"Well, in the modern era a policy of gender equality has been adopted. But in the old days..." Raven continued to beat around the bush on the topic. "Riordan refuses to bond with an individual that cannot absolutely guarantee that it will be given a heir by which to continue the contract between land and the royal family. With a simple alchemical flip of the switch a witch can extract the cells inside of another's body, turn that into sperm, and use that to fertilize one of their own eggs irregardless of gender. In other words while a female is vital to continuing the royal line, a male is not. And the only reason why a witch would go through the trouble of specifically producing a male heir is for the purpose of marrying them off."

Sort of like how in most of the human noble family's it's typically the women that are married off in the interest of securing alliances or forging peace treaties while the men are the ones who continue the family line.

"I get it, so that makes the White Queen your cousin fifteen times removed right?" Apple asked nodding her head in understanding.

"Fourteen, but yes." Raven stated still perturbed by Apple's knowledge of history. "In any case we should be on the move right now. We're gonna be late for our next class."

* * *

Beast Training and Care. As usual Apple's pet Gala was on her best behavior, jumping through hoops, rolling over and shaking Apple's hand. Rather this is the only logical course of action for someone who possessed the ability to make the fiercest animals sit, roll over, and beg to her heart's delight. It was when Nevermore took the stage that problems started to occur.

"Your dragon seems to be in a especially foul mood today Miss Queen." Mr. Bear stated clawed hand scratching at furry chin while he looked at Raven who was struggling to calm down Nevermore. "If memory serves she was making a racket earlier during heroics too."

"Sorry Mr. Bear." Raven released a burst of magic and forcibly grounded Nevermore, though the dragon still seemed to be dissatisfied about the situation. "She got her pride wounded in a fight earlier and it put her into a bad mood." Soon the class was abuzz with whispers that someone had actually succeeded in bringing low Raven's monster of a dragon. "Big mistake on their part. Eh nothing for it." Nodding her head in understanding Raven stuffed the rebellious dragon back into her purse.

"Someone actually managed to beat that thing?" Schlechtester asked legitimately surprised at the turn of events. "This place must be worst for her than I had initially thought."

"Or the person that she was fighting at the time really is that good." Raven snapped back, she was beginning to lose her patience with this damnable mirror.

"Oh really. I sincerely doubt that little band of misfits could put one scratch on that dragon combining all of their talents together." The mirror didn't fail to catch the wince that went through Raven's features in that moment. "Oh so it wasn't a member of the heroics class that did the little fire breather in eh? Once again the incompetence of the school proves itself." In that moment something snapped inside of Raven.

( _30%_ )

"That tears it!" Raven snapped, walking in front of her class but not breaking eye contact with the stubborn Mirror. "You bemoan the problems this place faces and do nothing to try and fix them! You continuously belittle my classmates, some of whom I actually like, as being weak and incompetent when they are trying to be better! You and me, duel right now!" Raven challenged pointing her finger to the ground to emphasize her point. "I win, you get taken to the head master's office, and you accept his offer to become the new Chem-myth-ry teacher immediately!"

"Cute. And if I win you get dragged back home where you belong!" Schlechtester stated without a ounce of compromise in her voice.

"Agreed." Raven stated dark colored magic coming off of her hands. Smiling, Schlechtester's, mirror cracked down the middle, before shattering, the pieces melting back together and shaping themselves into a humanoid figure, a figure that quickly gave way to color, creating a perfect physical copy of the being up until now only existed inside of the mirror. "Let's get this over with."

* * *

 **Review Section** :

DJ: Well Holiday specials are generally cute with a touch of sad, as long as I was randomly inserting a christmas special into it I thought I'd give a little bit of plot relevance.

Wade: A Change in pace is nice every once in a while. That is part of the appeal of holiday chapters. What I dislike however is when people spam Christmas carol every single time! Hmm. Maybe for my next holiday special.

Charlie: Who else would they spend them with aside from their own families? Maximum impact, and yes, the idea of a particularly little red riding hood walking around the big bad pup was quite amusing to me as well.


	32. Chapter 32

**Author's Note** : Hmm. Back down to a three to one average. Fair enough, holiday rush and all that jazz. By the way, you people do realize I always publish these chapters on Sunday right? Read, Review, Favorite and Enjoy!

* * *

Chapter 32: Please Stop Destroying the School Magic Mirror

Headmaster Milton had a bad premonition. As far as he knew, everyone was on time for their various classes, no detentions had been handed out, the little detention goblin had been chucked out of the school, all in all it was a perfect day. That was the problem. When was the last time he had a perfect day? Usually days like these meant that Mr. Badwolf had given his students a group assignment to co-ordinate their schemes to get back at him for some perceived slight. Allowing him to build up feelings of security and peace and then wham! He'd be cartwheeling down the hall on a wagon wheel tar'd and feathered, the mad woman being held prisoner in his study laughing at him all the way down. Again.

"Hmm. Mrs. Trollsworth." Milton stated speaking into his phone on his desk. "Where are the majority of the students right now?"

"In the back of the school just outside of the magical forest." The Troll's dry and sardonic voice replied.

"I knew it was too good to be true. Alright what's going on?" Milton asked letting out a long suffering sigh.

"Ms. Queen is trying to convince Ms. Schlechtester to take the post that has been offered to her." That confused the Headmaster, it confused him a lot.

"That is warranting the attention of the entire student body?" While Milton cringed in puzzlement a fire ball suddenly hit the back window shattering it and prompting Milton to run out onto his balcony to witness the duel between the two witches high in the air.

"Apparently it's a very heated argument."

* * *

Schlechtester and Raven crashed into the ground with a loud crash, Raven broken her fall using a burst of magical power from her Battle ax guitar combination, while Schlechtester preferred to simply shatter upon contact with the ground like so much glass. Not that it left much of a lasting impression, Schlechtester's broken shards flying into the air and reassembling themselves into the image of Raven's mother in her senor year of high-school.

"The Separator, personal weapon of the feared Cassandra Konigan of the Cursed Beasts, built for the singular purpose of crushing the will to live of her enemies, and you turn it into a guitar!" Schlechtester spat her voice filled to the brim with bitter dissatisfaction. "I won't even mention how you opened up the fight with a heavy and unbalanced weapon! Do I even need to go over how open you left yourself?"

"Do I even need to go over how much I want to punch you in your glass jaw right now?" Raven asked looking at the way that the bits of glass reformed around her stubborn foe. "What is that? How are you doing that?"

"I just sprinkled a little bit of Dragon dung over it and made it all better!" Schlechtester sarcastically stated making the gesture of sprinkling something in front of her.

"Now you're just making fun of me!" Raven spat narrowing a glare at her opponent.

"Of course I am! Did you honestly expect me to tell you my secrets in the middle of a fight!?" Schlechtester spat, pulling out from her pocket something that looked like a pair of oversize bayonets, with a wand attached to either of them.

"Yes actually, the people trying to kill me usually like to rant and rave about the genius of their plans and why we're all so evil and deserves to die. Gives Nevermore lots of time to sneak up on them and roast them." Raven explained humorlessly.

"That would explain why that lizard is taking so long." Schlechtester stated resting one of her weapons on her shoulder and shooting a bolt of fire into the air from it, creating a explosion of purple light in the sky before Nevermore crashed into the ground and rolled to Raven's side. "Your dragon's reflexes have dulled, considerably. Perhaps I should consider shooting at the two you during your morning exercises in a effort to whip the two of you back into shape?"

"So does that mean that you're sticking around then?" Raven asked perking up slightly.

"I did not say that." The magic Mirror in question stated leveling a glare. "I was referring to when I drag you back to Mount Doom in order to keep you from getting into any more suicidal situations."

"Oh yeah because that's a good idea." Raven stated sarcastically before readying her weapon and musical instrument for battle.

"I see, so you haven't taken the opportunity to do the reasonable thing and surrender." Schlechteste waved one of her weapons in front of her, producing a fan of fire lances before aiming the weapon at Raven again. "In that case I will simply continuously apply brute force until such a time that you have been rendered unconscious so that Mira and I can take you to safety." On Schlechtester's command, the lances of fire shot out towards Raven.

The Young witch and her dragon took off into the sky with the fire magic quickly weaving through the air to chase after them. Raven played a note on her guitar, creating a burst of sound that destroyed one of the lances. Nevermore blasted another one with her breath. The pair ducked behind a tower that ate a third fire bolt. The last two came at dragon and rider before they two of them dive bombed out of the way and they blew each other up.

"Fire lances. And she accuses me of only doing the basics?" Raven looked down at her seemingly hypocritical attacker, only to see that she made use of the earlier distraction to set something more complicated up.

For starters, she had erected a cylindrical barrier around the end of her wand sword, and was using a air compression spell to gather a huge amount of air and trap it inside of the barrier.

"Bang." With a explosion fire magic was thrown into the volatile mix, producing a explosion, punted in one direction through the use of barrier magic, and slammed in a head long collision with Nevermore who turned in mid air to take the brunt of the attack.

"Hang on Girl! We're in for a crash landing!" The stubbornly loyal dragon twisted her body a second time so that she would take the brunt of the crash landing when the two crash landed in the girl's dormitory.

"Well that was short." Schlechtester noted walking towards the girl's dorm.

It was at that point in time that someone shot a arrow at her, not that she noticed, the way that it was sticking out of the back of her head made it difficult to see it after all.

"Well that's a little weird." Sparrow noted looking down from the roof of the school, bow in one hand and the other behind him having just released the arrow that was now in the back of Schlechteste's head.

"She's a mirror after all, if she can't see it it doesn't concern her all that much." Mira explained getting a satchel full of vials ready.

"A mirror? I thought you said she was your mother?" Sparrow asked looking down at Mira questioningly.

"She's both." Mira stated simply.

"Say what?" Sparrow looked down at the woman again, sure she looked a little like Mira but she certainly didn't look like a mirror.

"It's a glamour charm. Know what that is?" Sparrow vigorously shook his head in the negative. "Think of it as a magical seal, you lock one image away, and you replace it with another." Mira stated while she jammed one of Sparrow's arrow heads into the cork of the potions vial before handing it over to him.

"That doesn't explain why she's so god mother be damned hard to hurt." Sparrow stated notching the arrow.

"Actually it does. The spell is locking her into the form of whatever image it's using. Said image doesn't make allowances for gaping wounds." Mira explained as she finished with the potion vial arrows.

"So what is it? Some kind of super healing factor?" Sparrow asked accepting the quiver of potion enhanced arrows.

"Worst, invulnerability, without the helpful upside of keeping the attacks out." Mira stated going towards the nearby ladder. "To which I take the liberty of emphasizing, your job is to stall, not to waste time trying to kill or wound. Got it?"

"Piss off the spitting image of the most terrifying woman in all of history." Sparrow took aim at the person in question with the potion arrow. "Yeah I got it." Sparrow fire the arrow in question, smashing at Schlechteste's feet and exploding with orange material, the foamy substance swelled up to her waist. "So glad you noticed!" Schlechtester looked up to the school's roof, annoyed. "I gotta admit Chem-Myth-ry isn't really my thing. Everything I make always just explodes!" Sparrow's face was all confidence, three arrows notched and ready to fire. "Not that that's a bad thing here." Sparrow fired the arrows at his opponent, empty vials shattering against her form. Confused Sparrow looked down at his quiver to find the rest of his arrows empty as well. Looking back down at Schlechtester Sparrow could see a giant swirling mass that use to be in his quiver floating above Schlechteste's head.

"I agree. Explosions are useful." Was the last thing the talking Mirror said, before flinging the mass above her at Sparrow.

"Ah Cr..." Sparrow was promptly cut off by a large multi-colored explosion.

* * *

Mira could only shake her head, the musical fool was suppose to keep her mother distracted not let her blast him with his own potions. Mira continued to rummage through Briar's room, her magical senses detecting the location of a hidden trap door which someone had gone through a great deal of trouble to hide away. Eventually she detected the familiar pang of magical power that belonged to her mother, and pulled out a large dusty book which she blew the dust off of, confirming that it was the item she was looking for.

"Now to find Raven." Her mother's first choice of tactic might be brute force, but when faced with a more complex obstacle like the thick multi-layered barrier Mira had spent the past month erecting bit by bit, blockading it to keep any more help from getting in or simply burning the building to the ground was also more effective tactics that Mira would have to consider for the future. While Mira was thinking about this she found the unconscious Nevermore stretched out in what use to be Raven's and Apple's room, the witch in question was on top of the dragon, her arm bent in a unnatural angle. "And you wonder why you spend so much time in the infirmary." Mira took a shard of wood that use to be part of Raven's bed and forced it been her jaws like a bit gag. Then Mira reset her arm and with a surge of bright fire magic welded the bones in Raven's arm back together, causing the witch to wake up in a scream of pain.

"What was that for!?" Raven snapped spitting out the chunk of wood.

"You're no good to me unconscious." The sound of rumbling signaled the use of that explosive magic which grounded them in the first place beating against the walls of the barrier Mira erected. "Speaking of we should probably do something about her."

"Agreed. That glamour charm though is really terrifyingly effective." Raven stated scratching her chin.

"As was the one that witch who rescued you used." Mira stated bluntly.

"Someone else who knows my mother's old tricks?" Raven asked cocking a suspicious brow at Mira. "Well. If she works for my family it only makes sense that they'd give her access to my mom's books on battle magic."

"Speaking of which." Mira handed Raven the book that she found earlier.

"Is this what I think it is?" Raven asked examining the book, the enchanted lock on the side, the jewel on the front, the bits of a feather sticking out of the top serving as a book mark. "There can be no doubt." At once Raven got to her feet, dragging Nevermore out of the way of any more surprises being hurled into her room. "We need to get this book open." Raven stated holding the tome in question closely to her chest.

"Agreed. The Blonde reporter is no witch but I can smell her lock knack from a mile away. She will suffice." Mira stated already leading Raven away.

"Don't worry girl." Raven crouched down and patted Nevermore on her shoulder. "We'll get you patched up too."

* * *

Mira had to be given credit for the sheer number of barriers she had put on this dorm in such a short amount of time. Not only were the Hinges of Cardea strong, but they were multiplying off of one another's power as well, and that was the defenses she could find. No doubt Mira had come up with something particularly painful should she actually manage to break through those barriers of hers. It was around this time that Schlechtester's vision was impaired, but by the looks of things someone had put a knife into her right eye socket, and upon closer examination her entire body was littered with sharp pointy things that she had failed to notice. Schlechtester knew that she was ignorant to things that she deemed beneath her notice, but at minimum she would have seen some one walking in front of her and putting a knife in her face.

"Hmm. Tricky." The transformed Mirror reached out and snatched a hand that was about to put another knife into her other eye socket. The blonde haired girl flipped her hair around and suddenly the knife had found it's mark. "So someone at this school can manipulate time." Schlechtester made a show of putting her finger and thumb in her mouth before blowing a puff of air, forcing out the weapons sticking out of her body like so many needles in a pin cushion with a pop. "Now let's see what I've caught." Schlechtester's hand was severed from her body with one of the knives that just came out of her body and the person that it was holding onto disappeared again. "Maybe the meat shields at this school are more effective then I thought." Commenting lightly on that Schlechtester squinted slightly as light was flashed in her face and a sword passed through her neck without leaving a trace. A boy holding his glasses in his hand defiantly looked her in the eyes for a few moments before realizing that his defiance wasn't doing him any good. "Hmm. Meat Shield." While Schlechtester corrected herself on the difference between singular and plural nouns, she noticed that someone had snatched her second wand sword. "Thief." At once the transformed Mirror grabbed the glasses holding boy who had launched a doomed attack against her, and immediately reached out and snatched up the young lady who had attacked her earlier, suspending her in the air.

"Darling!?" The individuals who looked like the little time hopping thief's brother's gaped in surprise.

"I believe you have something that belongs to me." Schlechtester stated glaring at Darling.

"Yeah." Darling stated pulling out a magic scroll from her pocket, cutesy of Mira. "I do." The scroll turned into a mass of blinding magic stunning the magic mirror for a few moments, Darling snatching the other two before running off again.

Beating the shape changing Mirror might be a bit beyond them, but disarming her, that would be a different matter altogether.

"Okay. Plan B Then." Schlechtester raised her finger in the air, and at once several bottles of brewing alcohol from the school's Chem-Myth-Ry lab flew out, Schlechtester tore up the nearby curtains into strips and stuffed them into the tops of the bottles before setting the ends on fire and chucking them at the girl's dorm. The fiery payloads were bounced off of the side of the building by a blast of wind.

"Who's afraid of the Big Bad Wolf!?" Ramona, in full wolf form and length of turquoise hair flowing off the side of her face, asked from her balcony on the second floor with a big toothy grin.

"The only one I see hiding here is you." Schlechtester stated pointing out the Gigan Wolf who was mostly in the room within the dorm.

"And lose the high ground?" Ramona scoffed at the Mirror's foolishness. "Not on your life."

Schlechtester sighed as she held up her hand and formed a magic circle, her plans to force Raven out of the dorm turned fortress having failed, she promptly switched to trying to dismantle the magical barrier keeping her out.

* * *

Obviously, Blondie had wanted to go film the attack on the Girl's Dorm room by Schlechtester immediately, but was called by Mira that there was something of the utmost importance going on that demanded her rapt attention. Thus, Blondie and Humphry were in the process of sneaking into the girl's dorm room with Mirror pad in hand.

"I'm not going in there." Humphry stated a little fearful. "That place is a forbidden zone!" Ignoring the magical force field that has thus far blocked the attempts of every guy to ever attempt to cross into the dorm room, it is also home to a large number of frankly terrifying individuals, Ramona Badwolf, Faybelle Thorn and a course, the ever infamous Raven Queen and her pet dragon. "Not for all the gold in Dwemor."

"Oh come on you big baby!" Blondie grabbed the Mirror pad that was suppose to cover footage of the battle and pulled it out of Humphry's hands trying to get him inside. "Fine, stay out here with the psychotic witch!" Blondie stated making a show of sounding offended before marching inside. It occurred to Humphry that the only place on campus that the Mirror couldn't get into might be the only safe place and thus stepped into the doorway.

"YEOUCH!"

And paid for his hubris in lightning burns. Blondie soon found the pair of witches she was looking for in the girl's lounge.

"Ever After High! Blondie..." Mira interrupted the Blonde reporter by smacking her mirror pad out of her hands.

"You're here to help us defeat my mother not interview us!" Mira snapped putting her baton away.

"Fine! But I want a interview after this is done!" Blondie demanded pointing her finger accusingly.

"Deal." Raven stated, promptly slamming the book that she and Mira found earlier on the table. "We need to get this open, but the lock's magically sealed."

"Pft. Is that all?" Blondie would look offended if not for the gleam in her eyes that was pure challenge. She took one look at the book before taking out a bobby pin in her hair and jammed it into the lock, a tell tale click sounding a few moments later. "Now what's so important about this book?" Raven opened the book to where it had been book marked with a Stymphalian feather, and more importantly to where it had a picture resembling a newspaper clipping featuring her mother as a teenager in a corner crying, the title on top declaring 'The Worst Evil Queen In History' and a magic circle drawn on top. "Uh, Raven, who exactly does this book belong to?"

"A contract transferring magical energy." Raven stated examining the circle and ignoring Blondie. "I had a idea of how much this place made you suffer, but if this was the best picture you could find of yourself... We need a fire." Raven stated tearing the page out of the book before she promptly snapped it shut again.

"Well that's easy we'll just..." Use the fireplace is what Mira was going to say, until that is a boulder the size of a swamp troll smashed down the back wall where the fireplace had been located, revealing Schlechtester holding Humphry off of the ground by the scruff of his shirt.

"Honestly I don't know why I didn't think of breaking the wall down before." Schlechtester stated stepping through the resulting hole in question without so much as a spark of protest. "I'm actually embarrassed that this little brat came up with the idea first." Well it was more accurately Schlechtester noticing his presence, coming over to investigate, and Humphry promptly getting down on his hands and knee's begging her not to hurt him trying to break the wall down. "Now are you ready to..." The Mirror was interrupted as something suddenly change inside of her, realizing only a touch too late that Raven had burned the page that had her glamour charm attached to it, before that is Schlechtester snapped back into the form of a Mirror.

"Is it over?" Blondie asked looking at the enemy nervously.

Suddenly a ghastly wailing voice echoed out as something made a big show out of trying to get out of the mirror and in spite of failing miserably still managed to scare the two witches and reporter out of their wits.

"Yeah, it's Over."

* * *

 **Review Section** :

DJ: Was there any doubt? They'll be bonding alright, in that over bearing hard butt relative who puts you through hell because she loves you sort of way.

Wade: Hope I didn't disappoint. Oh she will be, though there will still be a few sleepless nights in Raven's future.

Charlie: Hope I didn't disappoint. Have you ever had one of those situations where you have a really smart student who always seems to be answering the teacher's questions? How about one of those situations where no one wants to answer the Teacher's questions? Well, this is my answer to both of those scenario's.


	33. Chapter 33

**Author's Note** : 44 34 24 15 7

* * *

Chapter 33: You Have Some Explaining to do Headmaster Grim

Milton Took a deep swig of his coffee before he sat it back down, and looked at the incident report again. His would be Chem-Myth-ry teacher, in addition to destroying his balcony, also tore a hole into the wall of the Girl's Dormitory, tore a significant chunk of the roof off, hospitalized three students, and sent a fourth into intense psychological care before she was eventually incapacitated by being forcibly returned to her true form. Speaking of there was also the book that they found as well, there could be no doubt as to where and whom this book had come from. Which now brought his attention to the three girls who sat in front of them, Mira, Raven and Blondie.

"In spite of your subdued demeanor I am by no means angry with the three of you." Milton stated folding his hands together. "Mira, would you like to tell us what happened?"

"The Scar-Backs responsibilities include insuring the continuous prosperity of our lands." Mira stated unapologetic. "Part of that is making sure that our queen has a bright future. We've been rather divided on the subject of whether or not Raven coming to school here is a good thing or a bad thing: To give the other party credit the cons to outweigh the pros."

"Cons?" Blondie asked leaning over and cocking curious brow at Mira.

"My mother's one of the most vocal members of the other camp, being the mirror of Raven's mother probably has something to do with that." Mira explained shrugging her shoulders. "We require a competent Chem-Myth-ry teacher, my mother is the most qualified among people that we might be able to convince to take the post." Oh sure, there are other self proclaimed alchemists that would just love to take a position at a prestigious school like Ever After High with a high paying job and a huge boost in reputation, after all the real alchemists took all the better paying jobs with institutions that had much better reputations. Ever After high was either a entry level position for the desperate, or if you're someone like Baba Yaga, a quiet sleepy little retirement village. "She will not be happy about staying here, but she is not capable of tolerating what she deems to be incompetence. As long as we keep her here she will endeavor to wipe out as much of it as possible."

"What a terrifying sounding Mother." Not that Blondie didn't already know this, for proof one needs only look as far as the girl's dormitory and the rock inside that was the size of a swamp troll. After they left they heard a loud crash of the stone going through the bottom floor. The entire dormitory would be condemned at this rate.

"Her staying here is going to be a hard sell. But I've worked with worst. The issue of real concern here is the Girl's dormitory." The Headmaster stated leaning back into his chair.

"The Carpenter boy is competent enough with his families Knack. He can get a new dorm building set up quickly. With your permission I would like to include Witch Crafts of a protective nature in the building as well." Mira explained in a firm voice.

"Seeing what happened to the last one I don't think anyone will mind. After you're done though I'm assigning you to make similar improvements to the Boy's dormitory as well. I'll leave the matter to you then. Try to salvage as many of your classmates belongings in the mean time as you can, I'm sure they will appreciate that." Milton stated sorting papers into a file folder having apparently deemed that particular issue resolved.

"Understood sir. Is there anything else?" Mira asked getting to her feet.

"There's a vault full of confiscated objects underneath the Girl's dorm. If it turns out to be damaged or open I'd like for you set a perimeter around the dorm and come and get me." Milton put the file away before turning his attention back to Mira. "You're dismissed."

"Understood sir." Mira stated before leaving the office.

"Now than, the issue remains that we need to come up with something to do about the issue of where to put the young ladies of the school in the mean time." Milton stated looking between the two girls in question.

"If I could be so bold to suggest, Mrs. White Queen wanted me to go poking around the chunk of Wonderland that sprung up in the forest for any trace of my mother's magic, having a wide and diverse number of samples collected so that we can get a good baseline would probably be a good idea." Raven stated timidly raising her hand.

"So a camping trip eh? Should I get Mrs. White Queen to supervise because it's Wonderland, or Mrs. Yaga because it's cursed?" The Headmaster stated scratching his chin.

"There'll be at least be a hundred plus students on the trip, so sending more than one staff member seems like a logical course of action." Raven stated pointing out what she felt was a obvious course of action.

"Of Course, Blondie would you take the liberty of disseminating the good news to the student body for me?" Milton asked turning his attention to the Blonde in question. "It would a pleasure." Blondie stated giving a polite curtsy.

"Then get to it if you would." The Headmaster stated waving his hand dismissively. Blondie left the Headmaster's office, leaving Milton and Raven alone together. At once The Headmaster took the book and dragged it over the desk in front of Raven. "I take it you know what this is?" The Headmaster watched as Raven picked up the book and examined it.

"Yes." Bound by the shed skin of a dragon, written using the metal tip of a Stymphalian, the pages made from the wood of one of a cherry tree, struck thrice by lighting to show the approval of the gods. More precious than all else, a jewel crafted from the crystalized magic of Riordan's royal family. "It's my mother's book."

Raven opened the book and put aside the eraser that Blondie had jammed inside so that they wouldn't have to call her every time they wanted to look inside. Notes about various different curses, different ideas for spells, notes about that invulnerability charm based on a glamour charm that Schleschtester had made such prolific use of the other day, they would have the Charm itself were it not for the need to burn the page to stop the psychotic mirror.

"I think she made it while she still went to school here. Mira said that she found it in Briar's room, I did some checking and it turns out that it was Mom's room when she still went here." Raven snapped the book shut, the tell tale click it gave when she did so told the Headmaster that she had no further intention of discussing it's contents. "Funny thing Glamour charms, they require the use of a image to serve as a reference point, a statue would do, as would a painting, or for that matter even some of the clippings from the school's news paper." Not uncoincidentally, Raven went on her Mirror pad and went into the school's online archives and punched in the headline of 'The Worst Evil Queen In History' and there was the familiar picture of Raven's mother that she had seen in the book. Course now that she wasn't trying to destroy it she had a better grasp on where this picture was taken. "Isn't that Mrs. Trollsworth desk?" Raven asked pointing to the corner of furniture that her mother seemed to be trying to hid behind.

"It wasn't hers at the time, but yes." Milton stated taking but a moment to examine the corner of the furniture in question.

"Which means that this picture was taken outside of your office." Raven also noted that her mother's fists was smudged with something, though it was hard to tell what given the black and white coloring of the photo. "What's that on her hands?"

"Blood most likely, she broke both of her hands trying to break my door down on more than one occasion." Milton stated in a sad tone of voice.

"Did you not notice, or did you not care?" Raven asked in a even tone of voice.

"I was probably drunk stupid at the time. That was also a extremely common occurence" Milton admitted shamefully.

"Do you feel remorse because of what my mother became, or because what you did to her was wrong?" Raven asked a single jeweled brow in the air, Milton noting that there was no magical smoke coming off of her right now.

"I would be lying if I put the second first, but only because the sheer shock of it snapped me out of my drunken stupor and made me take a serious look at how I ran the school for the ten years previous." Milton stated calmly.

"You're being very rational about this considering you know what I can do to you." Raven commented trying to get a read on the older man.

"The one that I'm actually afraid of is over there." Milton explained pointing over to the door leading to his private study. "Whatever you would do, you'd at least make sure your punishment was limited to me. Her on the other hand the moment that she snapped instead of going after the people who actually did her wrong, myself chiefly, she spun around and stabbed her ally in the back. Is there anything else?"

Raven should be angry, she should be furious. How many years did her mother suffer because of this man's deliberate ignorance? How long has it taken her to move pass her traumatized child hood if at all?

"Name one good reason why I shouldn't curse you to death right here and now." Raven stated in a serious tone of voice.

The Headmaster looked up to the ceiling, as if pondering Raven's statement seriously for a few moments.

"Nope. Sorry can't think of anything. I would sight various laws but you could probably vaporize my body in a instant and considering the fact that you're probably responsible for feeding most of the free world I doubt that anyone would seriously investigate someone who will be missed by none." Milton stated getting back to work.

"Okay then." Raven was admittedly stunned by this old man who displayed no signs of even the slightest survival instinct. "I... should go now."

"Send in your grandmother and father on your way out please?" Milton asked waving his hand dismissively.

Raven exited from the office and indeed saw her grandmother, the armored form of her father, and the familiar form of the witch who had saved her earlier waiting patiently for the meeting between the youngest member of their family and the headmaster to finish.

"Baba!" Raven leaned down and allowed the older witch to wrap her arms around her. "I'll get some burn cream done for you after the camping trip in the forest is done."

"Oh Raven, you're too young to be fussing over a old cripple like me." Jadis playfully scolded.

"Daddy!" Then Raven turned her attention to her father, Raven gave the hulking armored figure a hug as well one that he had reciprocated with glee. "I made some shaving cream for you using some of the stuff I got from that village, promise me you'll stick around to pick it up?"

"I will black bird, don't you worry about it." The man stated affectionately patting Raven's head.

"Ah..." Raven caught the other witch almost instinctively raise her arms for a hug but quick as they almost went up they went back down again.

"I wish you well in your endeavors your majesty." The other witch stated giving Raven a short bow of her head.

"There's no need to be so formal, you saved my life and you're practically family, even though I don't know your name." Raven explained playing the odds that they were related based on magical power output and quality. Depending on which Warlock family she came from she might even be a close relative.

"It's better that way for all of us." The Witch stated in a sad tone. "I'm acting as a guard for your grandmother now, but I will be leaving shortly, security preparations must be made in advance everywhere that she goes."

"In that case." Raven explained pulling out a familiar book of spells, not failing to catch the look of recognition in the other witches face. "Mira found this book, we think it's full of my Mother's old Magical research, as well as a slew of security spells, if you can make sure that it gets somewhere it can do some good..."

"I'll take care of that." Jadis stated picking up the thick book. "It will be nice to peruse my daughter's research notes, give me a idea of what she was up to in highschool."

"You didn't keep in touch?" Raven asked looking surprised.

"No... there were certain... obstacles that cut off communication." Raven caught the eye roll of the witch who choose to remain nameless.

"I won't get to the details. I have a meeting and you have class work to do." Raven gave her father and grandmother a kiss on the cheek each before quickly running off. Jadis and Corvo, alongside their escort, arrived inside of the headmaster's office, Milton cocking a suspicious brow at the pair's escort. "This young lady has something I need delivered back home at once. Does that bathroom you have in your study still have a mirror?"

"Of course. Though seeing as how it's four feet off the ground you might have a bit of difficulty." Milton stated directing the group to the study.

"Oh no trouble at all headmaster." Corvo stated scooting the annoyed witch in a cloak along. A few moments after entering the study a bright light shown through the door before dying off after a moment.

"Hmm. Making mirror portals makes a lot more noise then they use to." Milton commented going back to his paper work. After a moments however something occurred to him and he rushed over to his study and opened the door to reveal Corvo standing in front of Morgan's mirror, the witch had her back to him brushing imaginary dust off of herself.

"What do you want old man?" Morgan asked turning her head and looking at the Headmaster out of the corner of her eye.

"Nothing." The Headmaster stated cocking a suspicious eye. "Enjoy your time together."

"You can be such a worry wart Milton." Jadis stated waving the older looking man off.

"Not nearly enough as a I should be." Milton stated before sitting back down at his desk. "For example I should have been more worried about that Mirror you brought back to the school."

"Sure sure." Jadis rummaged through her purse for a moment before pulling out Schlechtester, the image of Morgan in the mirror had been replaced by that of a feminine looking mask. "Blame The Evil Queens for everything, let's completely ignore who my daddy is here."

"And who is your...?"

"Who was it that gave Morgan the name 'Worst One.'" The talking Mirror stated cutting Milton off sharply. "Who was it, that made her hate that name so much that it became a curse?" Milton thought back to the news paper clipping that Raven had dug up on her Mirror pad for Milton to see. "Who was it, that made Morgan stay here and forced her to come up with a way to remove that curse by herself instead of seeking aid from the proper authorities?" Schlechtester stated before pointing accusingly towards the Headmaster with the reflection of ghostly hand. "I am a Curse, a mighty flag of hatred waved over the heads of the enemies of Morgan Queen, of this I will admit without one Iota of shame or hesitation: But you are the one who made me father."

* * *

Apple and Cupid were waiting outside of the Headmaster's office waiting for Raven, after seeing Mira and Blondie dismissed earlier they knew it wouldn't be long before she'd come out. True to their predictions Raven left the office and Apple immediately glomped her to the ground again. Ultimately seeing as how worried Apple was Raven decided to just stay there like that for a while, especially based on the knowing smile on Cupid's face she knew that she wasn't getting any help from her any time soon.

* * *

 **Review Section** :

Lelcar: No you're mistaken. He blames himself entirely for Morgan's rampage. Here we have the most dangerous, insane being to ever walk the path's of the worlds, and he could have stopped her simply by succeeding as a father, principal, peace broker or for that matter a decent human being. In short, he failed spectacularly at everything he had to/ever wanted to be, and now everyone is suffering for it.

DJ: Hmm. Probably, course they have to restore the glamour charm on her before she can do anything.

Jascmaster: A little hints dropped here or there. Given the unique way that Apple's brain works she won't figure it out until someone smacks her in the face with it.

Wade: Good to know. I was aiming for one of those final bad guys encounters like at the end of FMA Brotherhood where every body throws everything they have at the enemy all at the same time.

Charlie: Good to know. Basically yes. That explains so much actually.


	34. Chapter 34

**Author's Note** : Nothing to say today folks. But Yah may wanna check out the New Soul Eater Fic I've posted on my profile.

* * *

Chapter 34: What is Under the School Headmaster?

Maddie had just finished using her hat to gather up everyone's personal belongings from the wreck that was the Girl's dormitory, at once she went to Mira's side and dumped said items in front of the witch with a loud crash. Mira briefly took note of the items in question before turning her attention back to a young man wearing overalls and a large baseball cap chewing on a piece of wheat, a surprisingly dull attire for a native of Wonderland. The Hatter family can at least makes a prim and proper suit look silly. The two were discussing design ideas for the new girl's dormitory.

"How about instead of stairs, we have water slides, oh oh with chocolate pudding!" Maddie stated glancing down at the blueprints on the table that Mira was paying intent attention to and bouncing with merry glee.

"Ignore any suggestion she has. I will be back in a few minuets after checking on something in the basement for the headmaster. If the foundation hasn't been seriously compromised then we can begin reconstruction immediately." Mira explained to the future Carpenter seriously.

"Yep." The boy replied dully while he adjusted the wheat in his mouth. "Lemme know when I can start." The boy baring a loose resemblance to his name sake unfolded a lawn chair and stretched out in it.

Mira began walking away, but took the blue prints with her when she spotted the mischievous glint in Maddies eye.

"Shouldn't you be getting ready for the field trip? I thought you and the other Wonderlanders would be looking forward to a night spent in Wonderland grove." Mira asked stuffing the prints into a paper tube and stashing it in her book bag. "Not exactly your home and native land I will admit, but it certainly beats nothing."

"You don't know me very well do you daughter of mirrors?" Maddie took her hat off and removed from that a white cloth. Unrolling the cloth with a dramatic flutter a loud thud signaled the depositing of a campsite complete with tent, tea set, table, chairs and a lit campfire. "I'm good." Maddie tipped her hat to the mess she just made and suddenly everything was sucked back inside with a loud slurp. "Now about that pudding slide..." Mira could only sigh in exasperation while she went over to the ruins of the girl's dorm where Tiny waited.

The rather Large hole that Schlestester left in the floor made a convenient entrance into the basement, once Mira was strapped in and dangled down. Most of the load bearing walls were intact, so that was a good thing. The large metal door that was nearly bent in half thanks to the giant rock that was sitting on top of it, that was a bad thing. That was a very bad thing.

"Mother is in so much trouble when I get my hands on her." Mira tugged on the rope she was using to lower herself into the pit and at once the walking construction crane known as Tiny lifted her out through the hole in the floor. As Mira left she failed to notice the small purple cloud a of smoke hitching a ride on her leg on the way out.

* * *

Conveniently enough Bookend had a mall to it's name, complete with food court, weapons stores, magical ingredient shops and potions shops. That's what Raven had been told, but the food was sub standard, the weapons brittle, decorative and useless, the potions smelled like they should be avoided at all costs, and the ingredients were all imported invasive species that Raven would not be supporting any time soon. So here she was desperately scouring the outdoors section that was on the verge of going out of business since their chief clientele the students of Everafter had no need, want or desire to do anything resembling camping ever, and if they did they usually brought their own supplies from home because no self respecting outdoors man would step foot inside of this place.

"This place is a dump." Raven muttered before walking off. "It would be easier if I can get my old camping supplies from home." As Raven was thinking about this she spotted the familiar back of a good friend of hers. However based on the letter that Dexter was proof reading he was trying for a little something more right now. "I'm not interested in guys that copy and paste out of their throne work books." Raven stated prompting Dexter to look around at her.

"I suspected your standards might be at least above ground. This is for Throne-work." Dexter stated before he resumed proof reading his work. "I think I know someone who would appreciate that letter a lot more than me." As Raven said this she looked around the corner at Cupid who was dreamily editing a picture of Dexter and Daring together. Namely she was editing out Daring and replacing him with her own picture and a lot of hearts.

"Which is the reason why your name is on this and not hers." Because double standards be damned having a stalker was still creepy male or female, the fact that she probably possesses sufficient knowledge and expertise to create a super powerful love potion and sneak it into his morning oatmeal did not help any at all.

"Is this the same reason why you keep staring at your breakfast from the moment you lay eyes on it to when Mrs. Hagitha splats it into your bowl and long after you're done eating?" Raven asked cocking a suspicious brow at Dexter.

"All of the above yes." Dexter asked in a melancholic tone of voice.

"You are going to have to deal with this eventually you do know that right?" Raven asked in a authoritative tone of voice. "Because it's not fair to you, and it's not fair to her."

"...Yes." Dexter replied dejected.

The sound of Raven's Mirror phone ringing Gave Dexter a chance to escape.

"Hello...?"

* * *

One minuet Kitty was looking through the library, in search of the thinnest book she could find to do a book report on, and the next she was falling through a trap door, going down a slide, and eventually landing on a mattress.

"Hello?" Kitty looked around the room, it looked like the library, but it looked like someone was living here too. Just as Kitty had prepared to run back up the slide.

"Child of cats." A lanky old man with a head of messy grey hair and dressed in a suit greeted peering from around a corner. "What are you doing in the forbidden place of dark books?"

"I was picking for books to report to Mrs. Gold." Kitty replied visibly excited by meeting this man who spoke her native tongue. "How do you speak speak my tongue?"

"A dark spell has bound my tongue." As if to emphasize his point the old man stuck his tongue out to reveal a glowing purple magic symbol etched on it. "Now I speak in rhymes of Wonder."

"Hmm. That is problematic." Kitty noted holding her chin in her hand. Even if there was a easy way out of her for a old man, a non-Wonderlandian speaking nothing but Riddlish would get him thrown into one of these lands sorry excuses for a insane Asylum or based on his age a old person's home. "Might I ask your name?"

"I am the other half of the dogs who guard the dead." The old man stated letting out a sigh suspecting that most people wouldn't get what he was talking about.

"Aha." At once Kitty got out her phone and dialed her speed dial. "Hi Raven sweetie. Quick query. What's a 'Dog that guards the Dead?'" Kitty tapped her foot for a moment before Raven answered. "No this isn't a question for my throne work." Kitty stated giving a amused eye roll. "A Grim? Like the Headmaster?" Kitty asked giving a amused chuckle when Raven corrected her. "Two M's. Got it. Have fun with Dexter." Kitty stated before she hung up. "So you're the other half of the brother's Grim?"

"Does a Phoenix burst into flame." Giles replied not at all questioning.

"So who did this to you?" Kitty asked finding the man's Riddles rather amusing. "The old dog." The man stated letting out a tired sigh.

"The old dog? So the old Headmaster then." Kitty smirked in satisfaction at the answer before she realized the implications. "Oh... Your father curse you."

"Does a unicorn have one horn." The old man replied sadly.

"Quick query, any idea how to uncurse you?" Kitty asked patting the depressed man on his shoulder.

"The rope of tongue tying was cut up and thrown into the ancient book of names." The Old man replied in a defeated tone of voice.

"So we'd need the Story Book of Legends in order to fix you up." Kitty noted a mischievous grin on her face.

* * *

It took one of her family servants a little while to fetch the requested items, but after a few minuets the dark elf in a butler's uniform came out of the mirror portal leading back to Raven's home.

"Thanks Tom." Raven stated hoisting the bag onto her back.

"Anything else I can provide for you?" The Dark Elf in question replied cocking a interested brow at Raven.

"No. I should already have everything I need to determine the properties of the plants that have cropped up in Wonderland Grove." Raven explained indicating the cauldron which was used to brew potions by the young Dragon.

"Very well madam." The Elf named Tom stated giving a bow. "I'll take my leave then."

Now that Raven had what she needed for the trip she reported outside of the grove. The other girls at the meeting did not look too happy to be here, Raven assumed that none of them were except of course for the Wonderlanders that is.

"Ah, It'll be so good to get a taste home again!" Maddie for example was dancing merrily around the area making a show out of watering the plants with her tea pot. "I am going to make all of my old favorites from back home! Wonderland Tea! Mushroom soup! Eat Me cookies! Drink Me Lemonade!"

"Easy there Maddie." In terms of paleness, she rivaled Raven, if not exceeded her, playing card white one might say, with exception to the red colored heart over her left eye. She really did dress like a princess, or like a queen, right off of the playing cards, which was appropriate, when you consider that Lizzie Hearts is the next Queen of Hearts. "We are here to investigate the curse that plagues our home land remember?"

"Lizzie." Raven stated smirking knowingly at the red head.

"Cease with your eye daggers at once spawn of darkness." Lizzie commanded a angry look on her face. "You are not at the school to find the swirl of darkness that rules the skies of my homeland!"

Raven thought about the confusing use of riddilish for a moment.

"It's what I intend to do." Raven stated shrugging "I know my mother's magic, I know how to recognize it, and I know when it's been altered or tampered with. Most importantly, I know whether or not it is dangerous."

"If your mother has lain her vile tentacles upon it then it can't be anything but." Lizzie stated cocking a suspicious eye at Raven.

"I hate to break it to yah but my mother did a little bit more then that." Raven replied with confident scoff.

"You bleed fire breathing flowers, have poison running in your veins, are a carrier of zombifying fungus, regularly charge up explosive amounts of magical power and are well versed in advanced dark magic. Your intentions, though noble and aligning you with my interests neither disproves this rule nor exempts you from it." Lizzie explained looking at the dirt underneath her nails.

"Haa..." Raven could only sigh in response to Lizzie's barbs. "If any of that wasn't true I'd be a little bit angry right now." The young witch explained before perking up again. "And yet you are happy to see me." Raven stated smirking knowingly at Lizzie.

"But of course my dear." Lizzie stated emphasizing her point with a polite bow before her fellow monarch. "I am happy to see anyone who is working towards opening the road back home." Raven didn't fail to notice the little look that Lizzie gave Apple who was busy talking with Blondie to notice. "Now if only the same could be said for everyone."

Maddie had briefed Raven on talking to Lizzie, knew that she would hold a grudge against Raven's family for what her mother did to Wonderland, more so then most Wonderlanders Raven knew (Keeping in mind most of the Wonderlanders that Raven knew took part of a attempt to assassinate her) part of this was making sure that everything that she says is said clearly, and also not to make any promises that she couldn't keep. Breaking the curse on Wonderland? Out of the question. Conducting serious research so that a cure might be created? Doable. Unfortunately it's been the better part of a decade since Wonderland was cursed, and that also means that it's been the better part of a decade since Snow White promised her 'undying support' for the Wonderlandian people and subsequently put the quarantine up on the realm. Lizzie was not amused.

"In any case we should probably head off into the forest before anything else happens." Raven stated shrugging her shoulders before she went off into the forest to join her classmates.

* * *

"Do we know how long the vault has been compromised?" Milton asked standing before the broken and empty vault.

"Based on that dent in the door." Mira stated directing a gesture to the iron door that had nearly been snapped in half from a boulder dropping on it. "I'd say since my mother finished tearing apart the dormitory. What is in that vault anyway?"

"Various cursed artifacts. Before Ever After High was a school it was fortress, this room was a store house for dangerous magical artifacts, additional ones have been added over the years whenever students produce something dangerous or potentially useful that couldn't be immediately dismantled for one reason or another." The Headmaster stated taking note of a collapsed shelf with broken artifacts on it.

"What kind of artifacts exactly?" Mira asked cocking a suspicious brow.

"They start at dangerous and get progressively worst the further back you get." Donning a pair of Iron Gauntlets the Headmaster started sifting through the broken artifacts. "Hmm. The doctors are going to need a new curse sensor." The Headmaster noted picking up the broken blade of a dagger. "The Divining Rod looks like it's still Salvagable." The Headmaster's attention went to a warped and bent metal rod that at some point in time had landed on the floor. "Uh oh." The Headmaster's attention was drawn to the shattered crystal several toppled book shelves into the room.

"Uh oh as in 'a large number of potentially dangerous items have been broken' or uh oh as in 'one particular artifact that is more dangerous then most others combined has been broken?'" Mira asked cocking a interested brow at the Headmaster.

"A little bit of both. Round up the Heroics class, we have a monster on the loose." The Headmaster stated going to the flying carpet that served as a elevator down there.

* * *

Upon arriving in a clearing of bright Multicolored plants 'Her Majesty the White Queen' set the students to work making a suitable campsite. Once Raven had her potions lab set up she immediately went to work identifying the properties of various Riddlish afflicted Plants. Nevermore was busy conducting similar tests at the moment, namely she was determining which plants were edible and which to avoid. She found a large striped fruit that looked suitable for consumption when she saw that someone else was trying to get at it too. Another dragon of some kind, varying shades of blue red and yellow strips, a gorilla like body with a pair of wings coming out back and a long neck topped by something that looked like a mass of tentacles. The two dragons made a show of circling each other for a few moments sniffing the other's posterior.

"Looks like Nevermore made a friend." Apple commented beaming brightly at the small dragon while she carried a bundle of rainbow colored flowers.

"Hmm. Some kind of dragon, I didn't know there were any living in the wild out here." Raven tapped on her chin while she pondered the implications. "A dragon fly maybe? Definitely been affected by the Riddlish, we should catch it."

"I'm on it!" Apple stated as she put the bundle down and went over to the tree. "Cedar can you pass me that ladder?" Apple asked gesturing over to the wooden girl carrying a fold up ladder.

"Certainly." Cedar carried the ladder over to the tree where Nevermore and her friend were located. "Easy there little guy." Apple stated reaching out to grab the little multicolored dragon. "I'm not gonna hurt you."

The dragon sneezed a burst of magic on Apple's hand, causing the princess to slip and grab hold of the branch and fall down, slipping off of the branch and flinging the two dragons through the air. However the issue of more immediate concern for Raven right now was the princess who had landed on top of Cedar.

"Apple are you alright!?" Raven asked rushing over in concern. Apple opened her mouth to answer in the affirmative but stopped when she saw the look that was on Raven's face. The answer she realized was no, to the tenth power, as she saw her arm harden and crack like wood, progressively hardening. ( _100%_ )

* * *

 **Author's Note** :

Lelcar: Always a pleasure Lelcar. Hmm. That gives a idea for some character development.

Zarsla: I agree.

DJ: Probably.

DMCChildofSparda: You've posted several interesting ideas, and I for one have intent on using any of them. Instead I recommend that you get an account so that you can write this story that you've clearly sunk considerable time and effort into yourself.

Charlie: Interesting thing isn't it? The realization that you've screwed up so badly that you're never going to be able to make up for it, if you know that you're never going to do it no matter how hard you try then many would simply give up, especially when nobody trusts you to change things and wants to waste their time helping you.

Wade: That he is. No it doesn't, he's mostly just waiting for someone to up and curse him to death and put him out of his miserly. That she does, and that she would.


	35. Chapter 35

**Author's Note** : New chapter done, and hopefully I'll have a new story on it's way as well. Read, Review, Favorite and Enjoy!

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Chapter 35: What did you do Evil Queen?

"This is our target." Headmaster Grim stated pointing at a picture mounted on a easel depicting a dragon like creature with a long giraffe like neck, a face like a mass of tentacles and a chaotic rainbow like color scheme. "It is a type of dragon that is native exclusively to Wonderland." Several of the most studious students, chiefly among them Dexter, Hopper and Humphry, took note of the creature's highly unique appearance. At least it wouldn't be hard to find the thing. "It is a Jabberwocky. In your studies of magical beasts, and in many of your cases from being swatted around by Miss Queen's pet dragon, you've learned that dragons are dangerous because they can fly, breath fire, rend grown men to shreds with claws and teeth. All of these things have one thing in common, it requires that the creature in question actually _does_ something, that it _tries_ to rend grown men to pieces, that they _try_ to turn entire stretches of land into ash. The Jabberwocky are dangerous because they don't have to try to do anything, all they have to do is exist, and they bring a chunk of Wonderland with them."

"Excuse me!" Dexter stated raising his hand in the air. "As in the messed up monster filled Wonderland where everything including the chair's are trying to eat you Wonderland?"

"The same." The Headmaster replied flipping the sheet of paper over to a bullet point list. "Normally I would have Mrs. White Queen or Mrs. Yaga explain to you the specifics about the magic involved in the process, but neither of them are here right now. So I will have Miss Shards explain the specifics to you." Milton explained sitting down next to a tree where a large comfy chair had been positioned.

It had become no small secret around campus that in exchange for their continued support for the school the Headmaster agreed to allow the Queen family to send in a fixer of sorts to ensure that the school remained adequate for the student body. That Fixer is Mira and since then she has secured a place as one of the few go to people among the student body.

"Thank you Headmaster. The Riddilish magic has several possible effects. Firstly, certain elements associated with one thing can be exchanged with another. For example, a bear might become cold and inanimate like a stone, while the stone becomes animate and carnivorous like the bear, alternatively something might become the complete opposite of what it was before, fire into ice for example. This is the reason why, as Dexter oh so bluntly put it before, things like carnivorous chair's exist in Wonderland." The student body audibly gulped at Mira's statement. "Secondly, the ability to communicate also breaks down, first you'll start speaking in rhymes and riddles, then words themselves become eschewed. Some of you might have heard the poem 'The Jabborwocky' written about a battle between a Wonderlandian and the dragon in question, as you may also know that most of it is nonsensical gibberish. That is because the author who wrote it was under the effects of Riddlish." Much like a general addressing their troops, Mira stated pacing back and forth between the students present. "At this stage, the Jabberwocky usually makes it's move, mass panic is the absolute worst time for everyone to suddenly lose their ability to communicate with one another. And while we cannot prevent the onset of these symptoms we can delay them." To this end Mira gestured to the iron helmets piled off to the side haphazardly. "There is a common misconception that Iron is magic proof, it is not. Iron, like all things, will yield when enough force is applied. It will however buy us several hours." To this statement the gathered students quickly went to put the helmets on their heads. "Hours that you will use to retrieve the female students who are lost in the forest on their field trip. Hours that you will not put to use trying to track down the Jabberwocky in some sort of misguided attempt at heroism. The final stages of riddlish is when common sense is completely thrown out of the window, when you swing your blades they will not go in the direction you intend them to, when you fire your arrows and magic bolts they will be sent in reverse and come after you instead, your spells will be spontaneously randomized to the point of uselessness, at best. Making the beast release more of it's magic trying to defend itself is not going to defeat it. We require the aid of the Wonderlanders, specifically Lizzie, or the White Queen." Mira stated pacing back and forth.

"Why are they so important at a peak of curiosity?" As Humphry asked that question, from beneath his helmet two sizes too big.

As Mira was about to answer him, a loud explosion sounded in the distance, the wave of dark rainbow colors swept pass the entire student body, at first nothing seemed to happen.

"Uh guys, I don't think anything..." Daring was interrupted by a poof of magic, punted off to places unknown, and it got progressively worst from there as everybody suddenly realized that they had either lost something important or gained something they did not want.

* * *

Apple didn't remember what had knocked her out, only Raven kneeling over her body and then a flash of magic. She heard someone screaming in agony beside her as she blinked herself awake. Turning her head on it's side Apple saw what looked like Mrs. Yaga, based purely on her age, rolling around on the ground in pain. A second look however revealed that she was wearing the White Queen's dress.

"Easy now you." A young red head that was wearing Mrs. Yaga's clothes bent over to stick a chunk of something wooden inside of the old woman's mouth. "As much as I would like to sit here and see you roll around in agony, I've got better things to do." Stepping over Apple's stiff body the red head shortly thereafter shouted to the crowd of Ever After High ladies. "Does anyone know who got Farrah's knack?"

Apple was confused about what the woman was talking about. Turning her head the other way Apple saw the sight of a disaster. For starters there seemed to be two Gigan wolves snarling about while their bodies made several sick snapping noises as their insides rearranged themselves.

" _Is there something wrong with Ramona? Is that why Mr. Badwolf is here?_ " While Apple thought about this her attention turned to her cousin Ashlynn's step sisters Prudence and Charlotte were panicking while they floated through the air each on a set of their own fairy wings. " _What the...?_ " Apple stretched out her hand to reach the pair to offer assistance, but froze when she saw that her arm had been turned to wood.

"Just our luck." Ramona, whom it should be noted had a pair of bunny ears, stated bitterly while she slung one of Apple's wooden arms around her shoulders to help her to her feet. "I get turned into a rabbit, you get turned into a cat, Apple's being petrified, and Cedar's been human-ish for all of thirty seconds and she's already bleeding out." Shocked by that declaration Apple looked down to see that Cedar's situation very much reflected her's in that her arms had been made human and, presumably do to the slits that allow her to move as a puppet, were now bleeding out a mixture of sap and blood.

"It's coagulating pretty fast, if we had someone who could stitch her up..." Cerise, whom it should be noted had Kitty's ears and tail... "I've got what?" Cerise made a panic turn around as she examined her posterior which now had a striped tail...

"Who's saying that!?" Ramona started twitching her long rabbit ears as she too picked up on the voice... "Whoever is narrating our life story better stop or else I'm gonna start punching faces until they do!" Ramona barked into the empty air while she... "Alright first face insight!" Ramona stated narrowing down on a very confused and very scared looking girl. Alas the person they were hearing speaking and by extension the face that she wished to punch was not physically there and thus no harm was to be done... "Ain't that just typical." And thus a isolated rain cloud appeared above Ramona's head causing her to learn the painful lesson of why one does not interrupt the Narrator while... "Narrator? Is that why you keep talking!?" A sudden bolt of lightning from that isolated rain cloud quickly reinforced that earlier lesson with the mutual understanding existing that any further interruptions would result in more strikes of lightning. "...Fine."

Cerise wisely choose to step away from her sister while a suddenly very human Farrah rushed over with a needle and thread to tend to Cedar.

"I don't exactly have my Knack right now, but that doesn't mean I don't know how to sow with out it." In Apple's confusion she eventually pieced together what happened as Ramona carried her back to the medical tent, something along the lines of Raven having another explosion, which then mixed with the Riddilish magic and creating this situation.

"Where's Raven?" Apple asked, tired, wondering why she wasn't fully changed like the others were, and concerned for her friend. "No idea." Ramona stated pulling out clothing that Apple was familiar with. "Where ever she is she must be awfully embarrassed without these."

"We have to find her!" Apple stated, pushing herself out of her cot only to fall flat on the floor when her wooden and awkwardly bent legs refused to cooperate with her.

"We have to do nothing, you on the other hand have to stay here and not snap your limbs like the twigs they've become while the rest of us able bodied individuals figure out what is happening." Suddenly, the sounds of wolves howling on the wind reached the girl's ears, and a mass of darkness bolted through the sky above their heads. "Yeah, no I don't know that much about magic." Ramona stated pointing up at the sky where the shadowy thing had gone by. "But that looked like a bad sign."

* * *

Milton was getting too old for this, his brother was trapped beneath school, his bum knee was throbbing, half of the student body was freaking out because no one had the right bits attached to them, while the other half was lost in the forest at the epicenter of his granddaughter's latest explosion and most likely freaking out and he could already hear _her_ laughing at him.

"Has to be done Milton." Opening the door to his study, Milton could see Morgan amusing herself by looking through the various posts of the student body on her mirror.

"Do I know you Miss?" Morgan asked looking at the old woman who had just walked into Milton's study.

"...Grimm." Milton stated bitterness hardened into her wrinkled feminine face. Morgan made a show of stifling her laughter before she burst out and fell backwards rolling on the floor of her prison laughing out loud. "Are you done yet?" Morgan grabbed hold of her chair to pull herself up, only to resume her laughing fit once she had a second look at the headmaster.

"Aunt..." Mira, whom it should be noted had to borrow a pair of jeans and some tasteless concert T-shirt from one of the male students after she had become a he, walked in from behind the Headmaster and looked Morgan in the eye. "I understand that you are having a moment, but if you could please calm down long enough to offer us some insight. This is very uncomfortable and Raven is most likely being threatened by a Jabberwocky. Can we get some advice now?"

"Huff." Morgan properly sat down in her chair while she made a show out of wiping a tear from her eyes. "Spoiled sport. So what do you need to know?"

"How did you tame the Jabberwockys?" Mira asked skipping straight to the point, a fact that caused the still somewhat amused Morgan to cock a surprised brow. "You brought low the mighty Wonderland, it's apex predator would have something to say about being replaced."

"Jabberwocky's aren't that bad once you get to know them." Morgan shrugged with a smirk on her face. "They're much like normal dragons, approach them calmly, make a deal in their favor, if that fails, demonstrate enough brute force to show that opposing you is a bad idea."

"Like cursing Wonderland into a state of panic?" Mira questioned cocking a interested brow at his adoptive aunt.

"They are never going to let me forget that one are they?" Morgan asked in a amused chuckle.

Milton found herself looking confused at this sudden change in personality.

"Morgan, are you feeling okay?" Milton asked looking suspiciously at his illegitimate daughter.

"I'm always happy to see you, it always brings with it a reason to enjoy my imprisonment here." Morgan stated gesturing around her.

"Riddlish?" Milton asked not looking away from the woman in the mirror.

"Riddlish." Mira stated scratching his chin. "What I want to know is how she's affected? She's covered head to toe in iron armor and stuck in another dimension."

"Agreed. If the infection has already spread to the Mirror network then the situation is infinitely more dire then what we initially thought." Milton stated before turning her attention to Mira. "Through the mirrors other realms can be affected by the Jabberwocky's power, we could be looking at a wide spread Wonderland."

"Not to mention that if it's lost in the Mirror net we'll never be able to find it." Mira quickly pointed out scratching her chin. "Agreed. I will erect the quarantine barrier around the school and cut off the Mirror network, if it is in there, then it will be trapped." Milton stated as she turned around to leave the study.

"Twas brillig, and the slithy toves, Did gyre and gimble in the wabe: All mimsy were the borogoves, And the mome raths outgrabe." The Headmaster and student turned around to face Morgan once more. "Beware the Jabberwock, my son! The jaws that bite, the claws that catch! Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun The frumious Bandersnatch!" The poem of the Jabberwocky, as told by a mad man. "He took his vorpal sword in hand; Long time the manxome foe he sought—So rested he by the Tumtum tree And stood awhile in thought. And, as in uffish thought he stood, The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame, Came whiffling through the tulgey wood, And burbled as it came!"

"What are you trying to tell us you mad woman!" Milton snapped eyes glaring at Morgan.

"The tum Tum tree is a type of carnivorous plant native to Wonderland." Mira stated sudden realization upon her. "The smell of rotting meat that it produces attracts other carnivores and scavengers to it! We should get a dumpster and load it up with as much of the left over cafeteria food as we can!"

"One, two! One, two! And through and through The vorpal blade went snicker-snack!" Morgan continued, please to see that her niece had caught on to the cryptic nature of the poem. "He left it dead, and with its head He went galumphing back."

"And hast thou slain the Jabberwock?" Milton followed recalling the rest of the poem. "Come to my arms, my beamish boy! O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay! I know the rest of the poem."

"Dragons are notoriously hardy beasts." Mira continued scratching her chin. "They usually require the use of a Dragon slayer, a blade forged with the fire breath of a dragon, and we need one that isn't going to be twisted into a unrecognizable state by the beast's riddlish magic." Hence the mention of the legendary Vorpal blade in the poem, which leads them back to one of their biggest problems.

"You mean like the Vorpal blade mentioned in the poem, the same blade that remains cut off from us in the depth's of Wonderland?" Milton asked looking suddenly down trodden with the realization that they were back where they started.

"Let's focus on luring the Jabberwocky out for now, at the very least we'll know if it has left the campus grounds yet." Mira stated prompting the headmaster to agree with her assessment.

"Be careful Mira." Morgan stated resuming a seated position inside of the darkness. "Dragons are not creatures one takes lightly. But Jabberwocky are worst."

* * *

"I'm not leaving!" Apple, whom it should be noted was being carried between Ramona and Cerise, indignantly shouted.

"I don't think you've got much of a choice there princess." Ramona stated, one of Apple's petrified arms slung around her shoulder.

"I'll crawl along the forest floor with my chin if I have to!" The half wooden girl snapped indignantly. "I am not leaving here without Raven!" As if hearing her cue, a Raven flew in from above and rubbed her head against Apple's cheek affectionately. "Thank you sweetie but I wasn't talking about you."

"I thought you were suppose to loose the animal Knack?" Ramona questioned looking at her charge confused.

"Maybe it's because Raven did something to stop the transformation midway?" While Apple debated the strange situation that she was in the Raven went down her collar bone and nicked her glasses that had been folded up and hung on the collar of her shirt before taking off. "Hey! Bring that back!" Apple cried making a effort to catch the little thief with her wooden arm.

* * *

The Raven flew all they way to the school, where she spotted several of the guys hauling a dumpster full of old cafeteria food out into the courtyard. Ignoring the students and their seeming lack of logic, the Raven found the abandoned Chem-Myth-ry lab where Maddie had stored the girl's personal belongings while the girl's dorm was being reconstructed. There, the Raven quickly found a satchel belonging to Duchess, and pulled it over knocking it loose and spilling the contents loose, including a book about poly-morphing. Unfolding the reading glasses and perusing the contents of the book, the Raven soon got to work.

* * *

 **Review Section** :

DJ: As you might have noticed, Apple wasn't disintegrating so much as she was turning into wood, she swapped with Cedar you understand. Next Query? Thank you for saying so.

Charlie: True, that might have been a bit of a over reaction on her part, but it was less of a situation of accidentally exploding because of Apple, and intentionally exploding to have the power to try and stop her from turning.

Wade: True, now they just have ward off the apocalyptic crisis's long enough to help him. That she does I'm afraid.


	36. Chapter 36

**Author's Note** : New chapter out, Not much to say this week other than the usual Read, Review, Favorite and Enjoy!

* * *

Chapter 36: We Require Your Help, Magic Mirror

A mirror had been put in the chem-myth-ry lab, not a unusual thing to consider when you recall that the room had been turned into a temporary storage dump for the girls of the school while their dorm was being rebuilt. But this particular mirror was special, for it was the perpetrator of that incident in question. Not that anyone would recognize the mirror right now, having regained the appearance of a ordinary mirror, albeit one that had a feminine looking mask floating in it's reflection for a face. Not that it's past actions or it's current looks were of any concern to the mirror right at the moment. No, right now it was looking at a little bird that some time ago had flown into the classroom.

"That's a interesting predicament you've found yourself in." Schlechtester stated looking at the little bird, who was holding onto a pair of reading glasses and reading through a magic book. "Do you honestly think that I don't recognize you?" The raven squawked at the mirror seemingly in acknowledgement. "I told you so." The bird gave the impression of a eye roll before she resumed reading through the book. The door groaned loudly as someone walked into the classroom, admittedly it took her a minuet to deduce the identity of the young man that walked inside of the classroom. "Mira, I didn't know you had a interest in gender shifting." The Mirror made a show of sniffing something in the air before speaking knowingly. "Ah Riddlish. That explains it."

"So glad we're all caught up now. I take it you're also aware of the Jabberwocky that you released when you demolished the girl's dormitory?" Mira questioned cocking a brow at the mirror suspiciously.

"I knew that a Jabberwocky was being kept inside of the dormitory basement, having fled from Wonderland when my sister decided to try and curse it to death. For some strange reason everyone seems to unanimously agree that a school full of children is the best place to keep all of their potentially explosive garbage." Schlechtester stated rolling smokey eyes.

"If you knew that there was a vault full of dangerous magical artifacts under the dorm then why did you drop a boulder the size of a swamp troll on top of it?" Mira asked glaring angrily.

"Neither the matter of the vault, or what was inside of it are relevant because neither you, I nor our homeland's monarch are suppose to be here right now!" The mirror snapped glaring at it's ward.

"How did that work out for you?" Mira questioned looking at her adoptive mother before letting out a deep sigh. "We don't have all day to go back and forth on this. How do we stop the Jabberwocky?" Mira's question peaked the interest of the mirror. "It was beaten once already."

"Do we need to repeat the poem of the Jabberwocky?" Schlechtester asked cocking a illusionary brow at Mira.

"Two problems wrong with that statement, the first is that the vorpal blade is locked inside of Wonderland, the second is that it is designed to kill, which seeing as how the dragon is still alive means that it is not the method used to incapacitate the beast." Mira replied using a fair amount of deductive reasoning.

"Fantastic, but shouldn't you be studying it's former prison for those answers?" The Mirror asked her voice full of suspicion.

"Or I can just ask it's former prison guard." The Mirror cocked a brow suspiciously at Mira to this statement. "It was trapped in a glass statue, do I really have to come out and say it?"

"No, I was not the one who was responsible for trapping the Jabberwocky, that is a question that is much better suited to your headmaster." Schlechtester stated in a obvious tone of voice.

"We'll that's tough, because we already set the bait for the Jabberwocky and it seems that we have no means by which to fight against it." Mira stated crossing her arms in visible dissatisfaction. "Plan B it is." Mira went over to her bag, and quickly noticed the presence of the raven that had rifled through it. "Hello there little fellow." Mira firstly noticed what book that she had apparently left open, one which detailed various species of magical birds, which was strange since Mira memorized the contents of that book some time ago. Also of note was that the bird seemed to have at some point in time stolen Apple's reading glasses, a realization that it also seemed to come to because it then immediately took off. "I don't have time to go chasing after your gifts to her, my apologies." Once Mira was done apologizing to Raven she then got to work, setting up a magic circle, selecting a appropriate image from the school's on-mirror archives, and standing before her quote on quote mother. "I am going to attempt to restore your proper appearance, in exchange I want you to subdue the Jabberwocky so that it does not create any more chaos." Mira stated in a matter of fact manner.

"And after? It sounds like your plan is to trade one monster for another, namely me." Schlechtester stated cocking a knowing brow at her 'daughter.'

"A bridge that I will set on fire when the time is appropriate, for now we still have a monster on the loose, and we still need to do something about it." Suddenly Mira heard a roaring noise coming from outside in the courtyard. "Right now."

* * *

The Jabberwocky had grown significantly since the girls encountered it in the forest. It was now as tall as the girl's dormitory under which it use to reside. A large humanoid and lanky creature featuring a face with Pupil-less eyes and a mass of hair like tentacles, with two large wings the span of the school courtyard on it's back.

"That's it?" Dexter asked sitting behind a tree looking at the creature sharply. As it walked with chicken like feet the grass around it started to change color and produced a odd mix of different colors and strange smells under the sweep of it's long whip like trail. "Yah that's it." So good news is the plan to lure in the giant reality warping monster into the courtyard was working, bad news was they were also in the courtyard with said reality warping monster. "Mira there's a big ugly dragon out here that's doing really funky things with the lawn. Where's that Dragon slayer plan that you were talking about earlier?"

"We're going with plan b." Mira's voice replied from Dexter's Mirror phone that was set on speaker.

"'Plan B!'" Dexter replied fearfully grabbing hold of his phone and held it close to his face. "That plan B Plan B?" Suddenly a huge shock wave rippled through the air and slammed the Jabberwocky in it's face hard enough to legitimately stagger the beast. "Oh I hate that plan!"

The humanoid Mirror walked out the Chem-myth-ry lab, notably through the newly formed giant hole big enough for Tiny the Giant to fit inside, and glared at the dragon with a look of contempt, because what better way to beat one incredibly unstable and dangerous monster than to chuck another incredibly unstable and dangerous monster at it. She even had those damnable blasting wands again.

"Any brothers, sisters, sons, daughters or anyone to whom simply do not wish to die today. Leave!" Schlechtester stated squeezing every singular ounce of mercy that she intended to spare this day out in one sentence.

"R-run." Dexter stated his voice quaking in fear. "RUN!" Dexter and the other so called heroes in training suddenly took off in all directions getting as far and as fast away from the reality breaking dragon and murderous glass monster as they could.

The Jabberwocky breathed a stream of mutli-colored magic at the glass witch, Schlechtester responded by producing a fan of flaming lances with a wave of one of her blasting wands and met the rainbow beam half way. The Fire and chaotic magic mixed together producing a large and thick barrier of solid blue ice in a explosion dividing the courtyard in half. Wishing to neither go around this barrier or waste time trying to go through it the Jabberwocky jumped up and landed on the barrier growling at Schlechtester.

"Sometimes they make it just too easy."

The Mirror witch flipped one of her weapons in the air and chucked it at the ice wall dripping dirt. The Earth element mixed with the Riddlish magic inside of the ice wall and turned into lightning, hollowing out the insides of the ice and replacing it with a mixture of liquid oxygen and hydrogen. Finally Schlechtester fired a bolt of freezing energy at the ice wall, mixed with the riddlish magic, and turned to fire exploding the volatile contents of the ice wall and turning the ice into shrapnel that dug into the Jabberwocky's body.

"RRAAWWRRGGG!" The beast was knocked off balance by the blast and glared at The Mirror responsible angrily.

"Have I got your attention now?" Schlechtester asked in a mocking tone while she grabbed her flying blasting wand with one hand.

The Dragon fired several spiraling bursts of magical energy at his opponent, and Schlechtester responded by aiming her blasting wands downwards and shooting herself into the air. The mass of chaotic energy exploded and consumed several trees and a line of potions in the explosion. As a result, there was now a line of potions in the Chem-Myth-ry lab that had a orange scent to them, while the trees were now hanging fruit in the shape of potion bottles.

"That'll work." Schlechtester slammed into the ground fist first, releasing a powerful Necromancy spell that was flipped on it's head by the riddlish and served as steroids to the mutant plant and took control of it, hurling it's potion payload into the dragon's face with several implosions. "So, you seem pretty solid against blunt force impacts, lets try something a little sharper." To this end the Mirror woman looked to where Dexter and several of his classmates had been hiding and noticed that they left behind their weapons. "Perfect, now to draw it's fire." In the mean time a loud shriek had gone through the air, and not from the Jabberwocky this time. Everyone, including the big bad dragon in question, looked up to the sky to see that the clouds in the sky had pooled together into a circle. Lightning came down from the sky and slammed into the Jabberwocky, transforming into a prison of dirt and earth in and around the dragon and sticking into the ground. "That'll work." Schlechtester smirked as she saw the giant four winged condor liked creature sail over the courtyard and perch itself on top of the school.

* * *

"What is it!?" The boys had taken refuge in bookend, where they watched the battle between the Witch and the dragon through the zoom in camera on a mirror pad, and now the newly arrived bird beast.

"I'm looking I'm looking!" Humphry stated as he rapidly looked through a book. "Okay okay, 'the Thunder Bird is easily recognized do to it's distinctive plumage which when observed from ground while it is flying high above resembles a human face which led early peoples to believe that the Thunder Bird was the face of their god.'" To Humphry's blurt, Dexter zoomed in the bird who was making a show of flapping her wings while hurling bolts of lightning at the beast, seeing quite clearly the two large butterfly like spots on her wings and the fan of it's tail resembling a set of teeth locked in a grin.

"So we now know that the lightning slinging bird really is a lightning slinging bird. Good to know. Why is it here?" Dexter asked lowering the mirror pad and resting his chin on his fist as he thought about the situation. "This is the second monster to appear here today, both extremely rare, both incredibly dangerous. Can we get the headmaster on the pad?"

Humphry quickly went to work summoning the wrinkled face of the Headmaster, or Headmistress as the case may be, on his own Mirror pad.

"This better be good." Milton frustrated look intensified ever so slightly at the sound of someone losing their sanity with laughter. "I'm currently dealing with a uncooperative person trying to check the mirror Network for the Jabberwocky."

"About that, we've already succeeded in luring out the Jabberwocky into the Courtyard. Mrs. Shards, the lovely woman that she is, is in the process of trying to subdue him and his friend." Dexter explained making it quite clear that he was tired and scared.

"'His friend?'" Milton asked a tone of dread audible in his voice. Wordlessly, Dexter picked the pad up, and used it to show him the battle between the thunder bird and the Jabberwocky raging in the courtyard. "Oh."

"On a related note, does the school make it a habit to keep extremely dangerous monsters locked in the basement?" Dexter asked making his point by raising his finger in the air.

Schlechtester held the Long Sword she took from The heroics class and threw it to intercept a bolt of switching bolt from the Jabberwocky causing a explosion. The bits of the sword landed on the lawn, interacting with the riddlish magic that was already in the grass and switching elements of the two turning the grass into a sea of sharp and pointed long swords.

"On the bright side we might never need to buy a sword for the school ever again." Dexter commented finger dragging along a blade that had gotten precariously close to the town.

"Dex!" Daring suddenly appeared in front of Dexter, carrying Apple who was in the midst of a rather wooden predicament. "I found the girls!"

"Very good, can you get away from the sharp pointy things now?" Dexter stated gesturing to the sword that Daring nearly just landed on right now.

"Oh right." Daring disappeared again and reappeared behind Dexter. "Alistair's knack is pretty handy: Just saying!" As in Alistair Liddle, the descendant of the original Alice Liddle, who during her trek through Looking-Glass Land became the pawn to the original White Queen and gained the power of a pawn, the ability to gain the power of any of the other suits simply by wandering into the heart of enemy territory, in this case that territory was the magical forest, that Daring ran into looking for the missing students. And the set piece he has chosen is the queen, undignified in that it was a feminine title yes, but with the ability to instantly travel across 'the board' in a instant, so long as he has a clear line of sight. "Thanks for the explanation voice in my head." Daring replied much to the irritation of the person telling this story. "Dude why you gotta be so negative?" Little did he realize that if he continued this behavior it would result in strict disciplinary action of the electrical kind. "I got it, I got it! Heesh."

"You're... hearing voices in your head?" Apple asked catching on to the existence behind the scenes. "Cerise and Ramona were the same way earlier." Except that it wasn't just a voice, as it managed to zap Ramona of all people into submission when she refused to deny it's existence. "They got Kitty's cat ear's and Bunny's bunny ears." Which made the annoyingly intelligent princess suspicious of the connection between the mysterious voice in certain people's heads and the Wonderlanders.

"Apple I think the voice person wants you to..." Stop what she's doing, is what Daring would have said had a bolt of lightning not come down from the sky and nailed him miraculously sparing Apple from any harm.

"Lovely, Daring's turned into a lightning rod and I've turned into a egg." Dexter stated rolling his eyes. "It looks like our best hope is to let the crazy mirror woman and Thunder Bird do all the work here."

"Thunder Bird?" Apple questioned cocking a brow at Dexter. Dexter handed Apple his Mirror pad and pointed to the courtyard where the Jabberwocky was located. "That is not a Thunder Bird."

"Apple, I know you're something of a animal lover..." To Dexter's statement Apple shoved his Mirror pad in front of him, showing what was now a battle between a huge phoenix and the Jabberwocky, the first of the two was now piling out chunks of ice against the Wonderlandian Dragon, icing over the wings, and making it land on the ground that was covered in sharp pointy grass. Between that and Schlechtester shooting at it with her blasting wands the Jabberwocky concluded the need to vacate the area, and thus flew back into the magical forest. The massive fiery bird made a show of descending to the ground and attaching itself to Schlectester's arm as she held it out, returning to the form of a normal sized raven in the process.

"How long do you intend to maintain that ridiculous form?" Schlechtester asked cocking a brow suspiciously at the little bird. Towards this end, the bird squawked at the humanoid mirror before taking off into the woods. "Children."

"So we've got a Jabberwocky, some kind of shape shifting bird monster, is there anything else that we should be aware of?" Dexter asked mirror chatting with both the Headmaster and a young looking woman who claimed to be Mrs. Yaga.

"The problem with riddlish is it's inherent unpredictability, people are getting mixed and matched with bits of things that they don't understand or can't control properly." Mrs. Yaga explained panning to the various students under her charge, which included two giant werewolves, two fairies sprinkling down magical fireworks, ogres, trolls, goblins and a fiend, most of whom had been invariably tied and or pinned down.

"Ogres, trolls, fiends, werewolves, fairies, thunder birds, phoenix's, dragons, riddlish." Humphry listed off fearfully. "Is there anything else that I missed? Because I don't know how this swirling vortex of death of a school could get any worst!" Dexter proceeded to hold Humphry by his shoulder and slap him in his face several times.

"You missed one." Mrs. Yaga directed the Mirror pad above her head, where she showed the giant mass of swirling rotating darkness that was zipping back and forth above their heads. "It's an Obscuris, I don't know where it came from but we're working on getting away from it."

"Do I even after ask what that big scary thing is?" Apple asked cocking a brow suspiciously.

"Think of it as a curse, a lot of human run kingdoms go out of their way to make magic out to be a bad thing, so when one of the 'cursed' appear among their numbers they end up developing a self loathing, that internal hatred in turn becomes the focus of their power." Mrs. Yaga pointed up to the sky where the mass of darkness rampaging around was located. "That is the end result." Mrs. Yaga grabbed her chin with her hand as she thought about this situation. "The weird thing is that it's appeared at all, logically if a student was suffering from a Obscuris it wouldn't be appearing just now because of the riddlish."

Unless the obscuris was formed here, is what Apple wanted to say, now feeling the blatant racism hanging in the air, and the monster born from it.

"We need a way of beating it, the Jabberwocky, and we need to find Raven." Apple stated aloud prompting those present to look at her. "When I got infected by it's magic, Raven was able to push it back out." Most of it anyway, Apple noted examining her arm that was still like a stiff tree branch. "If she did it before, she might be able to do it for the others too." Maybe even help that poor person inside of that swirling vortex of darkness flittering about.

"Raven isn't the only person missing, the Jabberwocky didn't just switch around the students magical abilities it switched them around too, teleporting them all around the forest swapping them with all manner of animal, plant and mineral or worst yet, turning them into some manner animal, plant or mineral." Mrs. Yaga's words caused Apple's face to scrunch up in complete and utter horror. "We need to take that thing down, preferably before we all start speaking jibberish. Any ideas?"

"Who did you swap with?" Apple asked looking at the now much younger witch suspiciously.

"The White Queen. Why you ask?" Mrs. Yaga asked looking at Apple suspiciously.

"Ramona, Cerise and Daring all got swapped with people from Wonderland too, and they are all hearing voices in their heads..." Apple asked much to the chagrin of the clouds circling above.

"Yah no, I'm not getting hit by lightning today." Mrs. Yaga stated in a dismissive tone of voice.

"So you know about it." Apple stated sounding a little bit hopeful.

"Know it and want nothing to do with it." Mrs. Yaga stated without room for compromise. "Narrator's are inter-dimensional beings that serve as a bridge between worlds, communicating the events of one to another. They don't like it very much when people find out they actually exist. Fortunately for them though only the wonderlanders actually know about them."

"But if it's like that then it knows..."

"Because they're like that they are sworn never to interfere." Mrs. Yaga snapped glaring down Apple. "Now, does anyone have any actual ideas?"

* * *

Morgan was in one of the mirror's in the ladies toilet in the school, exiting through it she was instantly transformed into a young lady who was at the appropriate age to be going to the school. Immediately the witch removed the ring from her finger and put it in her pocket.

"Great. Back here again." Morgan stated confirming her appearance in the mirror. "Peachy." The juvenile witch kicked in a brick next to the wall and pulled out a great sword and shield from within it.

"Excuse me." Morgan turned around to see a young lady walk out of the bathroom stall. She was wearing Maddie's clothes, the most obvious hint about that is that she had her top hat with a playing card lodged in it and the distinctive green suit. But she wasn't Maddie, her long purple hair with a large chunk hanging over her eye was the chief clue to that. "I think I'm in the wrong place, do you think that you can help me out?"

"Who are you?" Morgan asked cocking a brow suspiciously at the girl in question.

"My name is Brooke, Brooke Page."

* * *

 **Author's Note** :

DJ: Yes it would be, but no that raven isn't making a potion.

Charlie: Laughing at other's misfortunes is one of man kind's greatest past times. But I believe that Cerise got switched with Kitty and Ramona with Bunny. They'll certainly help, that much I'll guarantee.

Wade: Yes it is. But you say that like the boys aren't equally scrambled. If her wooden bits weren't stiff as tree branches she'd probably be able to pull it off.


	37. Chapter 37

**Author's Note** : Point of interest, Fan fiction is having a fit lately, and won't let me write any new chapters, I'm gonna be a little pissed for a while. Read, Review, Favorite and Enjoy!

* * *

Chapter 37: Stop sitting around, Snow White

The student body, the ones that they could find that is, had been evacuated to the relative safety of the Book End mall. Out of the magical forest. Away from the magical dragon that seemed to be bound and determined to kill all of them. That did not change the fact that said magical dragon could come out of the woods at any time and finish them off. On a more personal note for Apple, Raven's apparent role in the dragon's blast of Riddlish magic which caused this situation had not gone unnoticed. Now that the witch was actually no where to be seen the usual rumor spreaders were going about their business of ruining Raven's and Apple's hard work and drag the Witch's name through the mud. Apple however was in no position to stop them, being walking evidence of that incident, not that she was walking anywhere right now, which reminded her.

"Any luck finding Raven yet?" Apple asked seated on a bar stool while using her wooden arm to support herself.

"Divining's a tricky business Apple." Mira was dangling a crystal on a string over a map of the area. "Especially with Riddlish involved. First we have to find out who or what Raven ended up swapping with by tracking her unique magical signature. Then we need to find the magical signature that belongs to that person or thing on the off hope that it'll lead us to Raven. That is all working under the presumption that we all don't get eaten by some manner of Riddlish born monster first." "You mean that you're not even sure this will work?" Apple asked in a tone of barely contained fury.

To be precise Apple was angry at herself, for the first time in her life she felt truly, utterly helpless. There are many maidens who consider this situation to be a good thing, in fact many are trained to consider moments such as these to be among the highlights of their lives, because they usually immediately precede the point in time where they meet their special someone who will whisk them away to their happily ever after. This was not one of those moments. Calling for help does you no good when everyone already knows where you are. Her 'special someone' is sitting on the far side of the bar comparing his reflection in a metal ice bucket to his mirror, she couldn't even move by herself, and all the while a monster that makes more monsters was on the loose threatening everyone in the immediate vicinity. Who exactly would consider any of this to be a good thing?

" _You would that's who!_ " Apple felt a voice in the back of her head seething with anger. " _Oh sure, you put on a tough front, but your solution to all your problems is 'Call Raven and make them go away.' Well now Raven is the one who needs your help, and what are you doing? What are you Doing!?_ " Apple cringed at the sound of her voice screaming in her head, watching as others did all the work for her. " _That's right, you sit on your throne, and watch, as others kill for you and die for while you smile and wave in approval so that the world that revolves around you can move on._ " The way that her mother raised her, educated her on how to stomach all the horrible things happening around her instead of going out and fixing it herself. " _Oh don't blame her for this. You knew something was wrong ever since you fell down that well and you never asked a single question. Your ignorance is your own fault Apple White._ "

Oh sure, Apple read a lot of Kingdom approved books dictating that this was the best way of doing something, never once considering that there might be a better way of doing things, of looking for a better way, of thinking for herself. All of those straight A Grades meant nothing when you're just copying out of a book, in a point to point comparison between herself and Raven she could not think of a single category to outmatch her in. Raven should be the next Queen of Ever After. No, Riordan's royal family should be the ones at the head of the United Fairy Tale Kingdom, not Ever After. For the record, Apple had not suddenly developed a split personality disorder, but she was very depressed right now, and full of a lot of anger that was not being channeled in a healthy direction.

"Magic is not a exact science." The half wooden Girl briefly took the liberty of snapping out of her depressing and turned her attention to Schlechtester, who was leaning against a wall with the raven that she had apparently adopted on her shoulder. "It is inherently volatile and unpredictable, and that is with out Riddlish thrown into the mix. The real thing that we need to focus on is dealing with our rampaging friend."

"We need to find Raven, she can..." Apple stopped herself from repeating the same old mantra.

"No Apple she can't." The Mirror woman stated in a uncompromising tone. "Raven used her own magic to push a fraction of the magic effecting you out of your body, as a consequence she pushed a huge amount of her own power into the beast which is what caused it to grow at such an accelerated rate. As a additional consequence that monster's own brand of magic was pushed out of it's body and affected the entire surrounding area." The Mirror woman looked at the raven on her shoulder pointedly. "Not only did she drain herself of her own brand of magic, but she's also filled up with that beast's magic as well. She is a giant mass of Riddlish in a sea of the stuff. You are not finding her, and she can't brute force her way out of this situation. In other words, instead of a chainsaw, what we need is a scalpel, someone who can come in and cut through this chaos to remove the tumor at it's source."

"I believe that is my cue." Apple was initially over joyed to hear Raven's voice again, until she realized that it wasn't Raven. Oh sure they looked alike, possessing the same black hair and purple eyes. But she was wearing a large magicians robe, and had a shield and sword strapped to her back.

"What are you doing here?" Apple asked in a accusatory tone of voice.

"My job, try doing yours: shut up and look pretty." Apple was legitimately taken back by the Woman's intentionally insulting tone of voice. "The Jabberwocky has already been loose for a day now, the symptoms of it's infection were accelerated on top of that. I say we have about twelve hours before we all break down in gibberish, and then nothing is gonna work right."

"Oh really." Schlechtester stated in a knowing tone of voice cocking a brow at the new arrival. "Your name, little miss."

"I'm a specialist." The newly arrived witch stated intentionally not answering the question.

"In what?" Apple asked in a equally suspicious tone of voice.

"Curses mostly, necromancy, transformation, chimera, demonic, both inflicting, removing, transforming and crafting. I have already prepared the most ideal weapon for eliminating that pest running around and causing trouble." The 'Specialist' stated holding up the sword from her back.

"A sword?" Apple asked serious making her disbelief known and rather apparent.

"A Vorpal blade." The witch replied corrective.

"That's impossible." Lizzie was the first to make her displeasure known, standing up and walking right up to the newly arrived witch. "There was only one Vorpal blade that has ever existed."

"Forged in a cooperative effort between the Queen and Heart's families in a effort to quell the Jabberwocky population of Wonderland stabilizing it in the process. Yes I'm aware." The Witch held up three of her fingers as she began counting off points. "Riddlish magic has three ways of defending the Jabberwocky, it switches parts of things around, it throws those things in reverse, and then for good measure it scrambles them." The Specialist retracted one of her fingers. "Firstly, the blade is made of Goblin forged metal, which greedily devours every thing it comes into contact with and discards everything that does not make it stronger. There is no way that even riddlish magic will make it give up the dragon slayer power that I've already infused it will."

"Dragon slayer?" Apple asked sounding surprised.

"Pseudo dragon slayer is more accurate. Dragons are such hardy beasts that you need a specialized magical formula just to cut through their scales and another one to release a type of magic based poison that will stop them from healing their wounds." Some of the students, specifically the male students, even more specifically the ones who had endured countless humiliating fights and injuries since the school year started, could only slap their faces with a look of 'obviously the fire breathing monster needs a specialized weapon to hurt it.' "Even though I say that, with Riddlish the effect would just be reversed, instead of a spell that softens the hard scales so that they can be pierced, they'll just become even harder then before. Instead of a spell that poisons the body, a super healing spell would be released instead. So the obvious solution here, is to imbue the blade with a spell that does the opposite, a hardening and healing spell. Well even though I say that it's not that easy." The Specialist explained leaning on the blade the same way one would a cane that was much too large for them. "Remember that in addition to reversing, there's also scrambling one has to contend with as well." Yes, if it was as easy as 'use the opposite of what you'd normally use and that will finish him off' then Jabberwocky's would not be anywhere nearly as terrifying as they are. "Just by entering the Jabberwocky's body, the magical formula inside the blade would get twisted beyond all recognition. In order to counteract that, what you must do is twist it in the opposite direction first."

"'Twist it in the opposite direction?'" Lizzie asked tilting her head and cocking a suspicious eye.

"If you know the cipher that Riddlish uses to twist something around, then you know how to decode that cipher. But..." The witch raised her finger into the air as if to silence the indignant Lizzie. "The opposite is also true, if you first use the 'decoding' on the message then when the 'cipher' is applied then the message will be unscrambled."

"That is impossible! Do you know how long my people have been studying Riddlish!" Lizzie snapped as if the facts presented to her were a lie. "There is no pattern! It is random! It has always been random!"

"No Lizzie, your people haven't been able to properly decipher it, because you've only ever had the end result to work with, instead of the original message." The Specialist stated in a knowing tone of voice. "A particular researcher among the Scar Backs Studied the Riddlish relentlessly. She created a portal to their little corner of the universe and sat it down in a isolated area of the border forest in Riordan."

"The looking glass portal, the one in that village that all the magical ingredients came from." Apple stated cluing in, recalling the portal that Raven had been brought to during their field trip.

"Correct. The Riddlish coming off of that portal, it switching things around and reversed them. Then she shut the portal down, took a detailed account of the surroundings, let the riddlish leave the affected area, before reopening the portal. And do you know what happened?" The Specialist asked cocking her brow suspiciously.

"Everything was switched around exactly the same way?" Lizzie guessed sarcastically rolling her eyes. "Your researcher isn't the first person to try this experiment yah know."

"Oh heavens no, it was all different." The Specialist clarified holding up the palms of her hands defensively. "But it was different with a pattern." Lizzie continued to cock her suspicious eye. "When light reflects off of a mirror, that mirror in turn becomes a light source that hits a object, that object in turn casts a shadow on another object. But as the light source moves, say for example the sun, then the light reflected off of the mirror becomes different too, and then the shadows that it produces becomes different as well. The reason why the 'light source' has changed, is because it's position has moved." Lizzie's face had gone from suspicious to full blown disbelief, many of the students reflected the look on her face not quite computing this situation. "Is it really so difficult to believe? The moon and the sun moves around in the sky all the time." The specialist explained impatiently rolling her eyes. "Why wouldn't other celestial bodies change their position relative to one another?"

"Wait, wait, wait!" Apple limped over to the witch using Mira as a crutch. "If you can do what you say you can do then prove it." Apple used a wooden arm to gesture to the room full of mismatched people. "There's a lot of people here waiting to get back to normal."

"If that's all it'll take." Clapping her hands together, the Specialist released a small burst of magic that went into Apple, and then went after Cedar like a homing missile. Suddenly the life returned to Apple's limbs that had been frozen stiff, while Cedar's human arms that were full of stitches immediately went stiff as a tree branch. "Now if you'll excuse me." The Specialist stabbed the blade into the floor in front of the girls before turning around on her heel and walking towards the forest.

"Wait!" Apple quickly ran ahead and stopped in front of the witch. "You can't just leave all these people here!"

"Sure I can." The Specialist walked past Apple not paying her a second thought.

"No you don't!" Apple grabbed hold of the Witch's arm and made a show of trying to stop her by digging her heels into the ground. "There are a bunch of people in there who needs your help."

"Correction, they will live, and they will be returned to normal when the Jabberwocky is defeated. That on the other hand." The Specialist stated pointing to the sky, where a twisted mass of darkness was flying about, having ripped the top floor off of the school's top tower and tore it to pieces before scattering the resulting chunks all over the courtyard. "Will likely kill it's current host once the Jabberwocky is taken care of, and will go back to pestering it's actual host once that one has been dried up and blown away. However if I can catch it before that, I might be able to save two people who actually need my help, instead of a hoard of brats that need someone to kiss their boo boos better. Do I make myself clear?"

In that moment Apple realized something, it wasn't just the words of the witch, though she knew that the logic behind them made perfect sense. No it was that look in the Witches eyes. She hated her, this witch hates Apple White deeply and passionately. This wasn't the kind of a hatred one person holds for someone that they barely know. This was a lot deeper then some manner of half ass grudge. That was the hatred this witch possesses.

"Yes. I understand now." Apple stated in a knowing tone. "So if you lack the time to help my classmates, Can I at least make sure that the method gets into the hands of someone who does? Defeating the Jabberwocky would be a lot easier if everyone doing the fighting were back at full strength."

"Whatever." Immediately The Specialist shoved the book into Apple's arms before taking off to the school.

"Thank you!" The witch visibly flinched at Apple's thanks, which she figured was a good thing, as it would probably fill up her magic for the fight against the obscuris. When Apple ran into the mall again she was immediately swarmed by her mis-matched classmates, though a loud whistle quickly dispersed them. "Listen up!" Apple stated in a tone of surprising authority. "You see that thing up there?" A tendril of dark magic smashed part of the roof top of the school in a overly eye catching manner. "That thing isn't going away just because we deal with the Jabberwocky! But we might be able to save the people caught up inside of that hell if we can beat it while she is fighting against that thing!"

"Who cares about that thing?" Apple turned her attention to the person who opened his mouth to talk back to her in that manner. One of Daring's classmates, or more accurately one of his cousins, a lesser charming family, not that he looked the part, what with channeling the orcish look and all. "That person is already a goner right? There is such a thing as being cursed to death after all. So instead of trying to save a rampaging corpse like that, shouldn't those of us still among the living be the priority?"

"Shush!" Accompanying that shush was the blunt side of a long sword slamming down on the formerly Charming individual's head with a ring not unlike that of a bell. "It is the responsibility of Heroes to save everyone they can! Go back and properly do your homework Lance!" Daring scolded donning his best 'Charming' look complete with a smile that for once didn't make people cringe. Mira just rolled her eyes at the concept of Daring telling someone to go do their homework and just assumed that the Riddlish had scrambled his brain before she took the book from Apple.

"'The Effects of Riddlish, by Morgan Konigan.'" Those that understood the implication of that name audibly gulped. Mira opened the book and the magic in her glasses went to work processing the information within the book. "She was right, this information is complex. But the logic is sound, and since it's not coming directly from Wonderland, some of it doesn't necessarily apply."

"Do you think you'll have it ready by the time we find the Jabberwocky?" Daring asked pulling the Vorpal blade out of the ground and stuff it into the sheath on his back, only for someone else to immediately take it from him. "Yah no, I've seen you fight normal dragons." Some kind of glamour turned the blade into a ring that was promptly slipped onto Lizzie's ring finger. "I'll be taking this."

"Hey wait a minuet." Lizzie grabbed Daring's hand as he reached out to her ring and broke his wrist, before delivering several palm thrusts to his throat and chest and throwing him to the floor. "Is there any one else who would like to argue with me?" Lizzie asked pointedly looking towards the young man writhing in pain on the ground.

"We'll willing to cure anyone who wants to help right now." Apple stated stepping forward and putting her hands on her hips. "We need all the help we can get yes, but we lack time to help everyone. I will make myself clear that we have a limited amount of time to work with, and can't waste too much of it when all of you are going to be cured anyway when the Jabberwocky is beaten."

"Speaking of time." Daring stated getting back to his feet using Apple as a support. "But has anyone seen where Raven's fire breathing monster went? Because I really don't wanna waste any on that thing."

* * *

The Jabberwocky stumbled through the woods, it's injuries were painful, and there were still shards of broken blade grass sticking out of it's feet. Another figure appeared, just as large, dark body and nightmarish teeth seemed to glare down the other dragon. It would make since that those who spent any great deal of time would also be affected by the Jabberwocky's magic, though she did a fair bit more then merely spending time with him. Her glare seemed to question his sorry state, not his numerous injuries but rather coming back home empty handed. The Jabberwocky could only moan apologetically, not even a boulder for their nest. She fetched a bush of familiar looking plants and dropped it in front of the Jabberwocky, growling at it to chew but not swallow the leaves while she went about removing the shards of metal, just as Raven did for her when she was hit by that arrow the one time. Using the paste made from the Jabberwocky's saliva and the leaves, Nevermore sealed up the wounds that had the bits of metal pulled out of them. Now that he was healed up Nevermore went back into their shelter made from several fallen tree's they had piled on top of each other, growling at the other dragon, after all what kind of mate can't even bring back building materials for their nest?

* * *

 **Review Section** :

DJ: Basically yes, but the Narrator isn't going to help. There is no figuring out, she already knows. You say that like Raven ever believed that her mother was as bad as people say she is.

Aya Rose: Hmm. That is a flaw in my formula isn't it? Mostly because it seems that we're facing off against magical enemies a lot, I need to work on that. That said you have given me a few ideas for the story.

Wade: Thank you. Don't worry, they've gotten their point across by now.

Charlie: The only flaw with that plan, is that the least dangerous thing in existence is going to become the most.


	38. Chapter 38

**Author's Note** : An important announcement: I know it doesn't look like it, but I did have a plan when I started this, a Beginning and a Middle and a End, the problem is I realized that end was terrible, so now I need to come up with another end, but I got a few weeks to think about that. In any case, Read, Review, Favorite and Enjoy!

* * *

Chapter 38: What have you been doing Smok?

Ginger was using a habachi grill that she found in the mall to grill burger patties, a wide variety of individuals that looked mismatched and very much in the mood to be returned back to normal were lined up in front of her impatiently tapping their feet.

"Are you sure this is gonna work?" Apple asked looking down at the spatula like wand that Ginger was was using to barbecue, grilling magic circles directly onto the burgers.

"Depends on how much we trust this doctor Konigan." Ginger replied as she began putting burger meat on buns.

"One way to find out." Ramona said as she grabbed two of the burgers and walked over to a huge white Gigan wolf that someone had taken the liberty of chaining down to the malls support pillars while she snapped at various classmates. "Eat it and like it you colossal pain in my Butt!"

Ramona grabbed the upper jaw as the wolf tried to bite her and stomped down on the other before chucking one of the burgers down her throat and eating the other. Muted Rainbow colored magic smoke came out of their bodies and sparked between the two of them. Soon, the rabbit ears that were on top of Ramona's head vanished in a flash of smoke, and were replaced with Ramona's standard wolf ears. The person/large wolf type creature who was unfortunate enough to trade forms with her on the other hand vanished in a ball of dark rainbow and was replaced by the familiar form of Bunny Blanc, who for some odd reason spat out a pocket watch.

"Thanks Ramona." Bunny stated while lying motionless on the floor.

"Well that worked." Ramona commented blandly.

As if that was some kind of cue, the various students all rushed towards the grill at once all very much eager to get turned back to normal. Suddenly a blast of explosive magic went off above everyone's heads, prompting them to spin around to their supervisors, and more specifically, a certain mirror.

"Find whoever the heck you are going to switch with and pair off with them. This is not a free for all!" The various students seemed to ignore the mirror, so she decided to remind them of whom they were speaking to. She whipped out one of her blasting wands and fired at the ground off to the side of Ginger creating a small explosion. "Did I not make myself clear earlier? LINE UP!" The students in question obediently lined up in front of Ginger's habachi but were stopped by Schlechtester and a magical barrier. "This is a treatment not a shopping mall, we will make sure that each of you receive your original features, not some idealized version of yourself!" The Mirror soon began using the student roster to sort out who was really what.

"This looks like it will take a while." Ginger noted with a cringe.

It was Ginger's proposal that they start by sorting out the experienced magic users, not only a sizable asset when fighting against the Jabberwocky, but they could in turn use the information in the book to turn more people back to normal. Aside from Ginger, Bunny and Ramona Faybelle and Farrah had switched back with Ashlyn's step sisters, Mrs. Yaga and the White Queen had been switched around as well and now largely thanks to Ramona's brute force approach Kitty and Cerise were both now back to normal as well.

"Well we have our trackers, our wonderlanders, hero's and villains. What do we do now?" Ramona asked cocking a brow to the teachers.

"This came off of the Jabberwocky during the last fight." Schleschtester stated throwing a rainbow colored dragon scale at Ramona's feet. "Find it."

"I'll stay behind and keep working on getting everyone back to normal." Ginger stated one hand in the air. "Before you leave I can make up some buffing food to enhance Stamina, strength and speed."

"Good plan." Mrs. Yaga noted that in spite of the readily available options laid out before them neither Lizzie or Daring had taken the liberty of changing back to their normal selves. "You two are good as you are?"

"Pfft." Lizzie scoffed at the notion. "I've been fooling around with Riddlish magic ever since I was a small child. Me and my friends use to switch bits of ourselves around all the time just for the heck of it." Apple noted that Lizzie had a long and interesting life for a teenager.

"You didn't know, or you didn't ask?" Apple asked prompting Lizzie to look at her strangely. "I've... had some experience with ignorance recently. There's a difference between not seeing it, and choosing to ignore it."

Lizzie was aware that Riddlish wasn't just random all along, Riddlish didn't just protect the Jabberwocky's it also kept unwanted visitors away as well, of course the method to cure or immunize themselves wouldn't become common knowledge, unlike Apple she could keep a secret.

"Ginger dear, when this is all over, I'm going to need that book if you wouldn't mind." Lizzie stated in a scarily polite tone of voice.

"I haven't been able to find my other half. Anyway Alistair's knack turned out to be pretty handy, I figure I can use it to drop something heavy on top of that thing during the fight." The other's gave a serious look to Daring, he looked awfully big of himself for someone who had to get Mira to put him back together again, but decided to drop the matter, as long as they had someone to do the real Heavy lifting around there then they should be good.

"I've got a few ideas about what to do about that big ugly jerk." Faybelle said idly petting a combination Halberd and staff that she was so fond of. "Besides, I have to give my thesis for Evil Spells."

"Anything we have to worry about?" Mrs. Yaga asked cocking a brow at Faybelle.

"Nothing that me, Ginger and Apple can't handle." Faybelle stated with a devious smirk.

"Hmm. A Ritual spell eh?" Mrs. Yaga stated once again wrinkled fingers holding onto her chin.

Ritual Magic is typically used for one of two reasons. Either the spell was of the level that it required multiple people to accomplish, or it used multiple different and unrelated things in concert with each other to accomplish it's goal.

"I don't have any formal training in Magic Faybelle." Apple was quick to point out the short comings here. "And I doubt that I'll be able to contribute much to whatever your planning on doing."

"No but I will." Mira, still in a masculine form, stated stepping forward.

"Are you going to be okay Mira? Did your magic get screwed up by the Jabberwocky too?" Apple asked looking at the male Mira standing before her.

"It altered it, it didn't render it unusable." Mira explained shrugging her shoulders. "Simply put, male and Female magi are fundamentally different. A female possesses more flexibility with their magic, allowing them access a greater number and variety of knacks. Males on the other hand usually have more power to work with." Of course because they lack that flexibility most boys aren't able to make the cut. Which is part of the reason why Hopper was effectively the only boy showing up to Mrs. Yaga's class. Even then Hopper lacked the formal training and conditioning in magic which would draw out his full capacity, so thus Raven was the one with the highest capacity in the entire class. "Even if I don't have the flexibility I use to, in Trade I've become a generator of ludicrous amounts of power for it."

Faybelle shrugged her shoulders while leading the group outside, she explained to Ginger what she needed her to do.

"Alright Faybelle, I hope this works." Soon the cook was on all fours. Ginger could sense them deep, under ground, officially her knack was registered as cooking but a deeper look revealed other information, with fire and necromancy as removed knacks. That is what Ginger was on all fours looking for right now. It was a forest, animals die, are eaten, occasionally they rot away, but all of them end up in the ground being fed upon by the plants above. But in this forest, the animals have great magical power. "I can feel them, but they're down deep, tangled with the roots." Ginger explained taking a deep breath. "I can't get them out on my own."

"That's part of the idea." Faybelle stepped up this time. The magical forest was called that for a reason, the trees were a mixture of Apple, Ash, Beech, Birch, Cherry, Elder, Elm, Hawthorn, Oak, Pear, Rowan, Sycamore, Willow and Yew as well as various vines Ivy, Holly and Mistle toe. All of these were the woods and plants deemed most suitable for making wands, staffs and other types of magic tools, in fact much of the school's frame work was built using wood from this forest, transforming it into a powerful conductor of Magical power. These trees that were top grade material for the purpose of producing magical tools were entangled with the bodies of creatures that magic was second nature. "And here we go." With a mighty rumble the bones of the long dead were ripped to the surface by roots and vines, the wood grew around the bones and were wrapped in vines as a type of pseudo muscle. A bear, a dear and a griffin made out of wood. "The term is called Archespore, Undead reanimated from corpses that are being fed upon by plants resulting in a strange mutated hybrid of both. Mother uses creatures similar to these as guard dogs back home. In this case, both the animals and the plants are already magical in nature." Faybelle climbed on top of the dear pulling Ginger onto it's back as well. "Two for Evil Spells for both me and Ginger, and one for our Magicology assignment in Ritual magic that you are doubtlessly planning to assign us."

"Snaha!" Mrs. Yaga snorted out a laugh at Faybelle's explanation. "Have I really grown that predictable?" Mrs. Yaga asked cocking a grin with crooked teeth.

"What? Predictable you?" Faybelle asked in mock shock. "I mean, who in all of Ever After could have predicted mwah being assigned such simple tasks for her classes."

"Actually." Ginger stated raising her hand. "I happen to like the classes. Except Evil Spells, thanks Faybelle for including me in this, I don't really have the malevolence for this kind of thing."

"Not a problem old friend. Though seeing your distaste for the undead we must instead rely on our princess for this undead parade." Faybelle explained gesturing to Apple.

"Alright then." Apple grabbed hold of leafy feathers and pulled herself on top of the back of the griffin creature. "I've never worked with Undead animals before." Apple commented patting down the feathers\leafs of the beast's mane. "Excuse me." To Apple's polite inquiry the bird/cat/plant thing turned a single amber eye to face the young princess in question. "There's a dangerous dragon in the forest, do you think that you and your ah... friends here can help us?" The Amber eyed tree\bird\lion looked over to the other two animals which now had three magi and a queen climbing onto their backs, in addition to a fairy fluttering in the air and Cerise, Daring and Lizzie were getting onto Ramona's back. The leafy bird head turned back around to face Apple and nodded it's head. "Alright, I can scout from above." Apple turned around to face Mira and Schlechtester.

"Mira, Shlee-Schech, Mrs. Shards." Apple stated eventually giving up on saying the Mirror's first name. "The two of you aren't coming?"

"Mira bound me directly to the school." The mirror in question stated narrowing a glare at her daughter. "I can't break the link without undoing the glamour charm which grants me mobility. Evidently she is conspiring to ensure I don't attempt to grab my quote on quote niece and bring her back home. I've been worn thin just by coming out here."

"Even as a Warlock my services are better served guarding the school. If the Jabberwocky, or any of the by products of it's presence, comes back here the students will be at risk once more, we need the extra help to chase them off." Mira stated adjusting his glasses.

"Good luck." Apple stated before her leafy mount took off through the air.

"That's what I should be telling you." Mira stated turning back to the school.

* * *

Morgan looked down at the leafy creature Faybelle had whipped up and to which Apple was now riding. One of the side effects of binding her old mirror to the school was that the glamour charm which held over sized hunk of glass together also applied to the school now. Thus even though the Girl's dorm hadn't been fixed yet, the school itself had managed to pull itself back together again just as she is one to do. For now though there was the matter of the obscuris to deal with.

"As they say..." Morgan formed a fist with her hand and a large amount of dark black smoke came out of her hand while her eyes glowed a deep red. "The cursed, attracts the cursed."

The Obscuris suddenly arced through the sky and changed directions back to the school. The Giant swirling mass of darkness crashed through the roof of the school's auditorium, Morgan continuous blasted at the thing with a stave keeping it inside of the auditorium before she herself jumped down inside. A single wave of the stave and Morgan laced the entire room with barriers, keeping the destructive ball of black magic inside the building, the barriers causing it to pin ball about as it looked for the means of escape or attempted to make one.

"Your suffering will end soon enough." Morgan got her bag out and prepared a number of sinister looking things, including what looked like a bow with heart shaped arrows inside. "Hopefully, I'll only have to suppress you." Morgan notched the bow and fired exploding arrows at the Obscuris.

* * *

Apple was joined by Mrs. Shard's new pet in the, having taken the form of a phoenix as she selectively lit parts of the forest on fire. The idea here is that if the flames came in contact with the Jabberwocky they would either spontaneously freeze over or be booted off to somewhere else, based on what they learned from Morgan's book anyway. However it seemed largely unnecessary, as Apple received a text from Ramona who was on the ground with a ominous three word sentence: 'Found it's nest.' Evidently tracking down Rarmona was a lot easier then trying to find the Jabberwocky. It helped that she was broadcasting her position.

"You found it's nest?" Apple asked sounding concerned. "It has a nest?" Nest = young = mother = another dragon in Apple's mindset.

"The bugger looks like it ripped a bunch of trees right out of the ground and piled them on top of one another." Ramona explained looking around and seeing the holes that were left in the ground from something ripping out several trees.

"Lizzie, I suspect I will regret asking..." Apple stated in a depressed tone of voice.

"Some do, some don't, as is the lot with Riddlish." Lizzie stated crossing her arms.

"Well, the Headmaster said there hasn't been a dragon on the campus grounds since Nevermore's grand daddy Smok. Well except for..." As Apple said that a familiar deep grumbling growl echoed from the pile of wood in front of them.

"No-o..." Daring stated fearfully stepping backwards. At the same time, the ground started shaking, part of the nest collapsed in on itself, but in a burst of flame the wood chunks were blown off and out wreathed in flame was a familiar giant black dragon. "God Mother No!"

Nevermore leveled a contemptuous glare down at those who were disturbing her territory, snorting a puff of steam in their faces. Someone behind Apple pushed her forward, Apple took the liberty of shooting Lizzie a glare before she walked over to the supersized Nevermore.

"Easy there girl..." Apple placed her hand on the tip of the dragon's snout. "We're not here to hurt you." As if asking 'you think you can' a light glow came from the dragon's mouth, indicating that a bolt of fire breath was getting ready to turn loose, and at point blank range no less. "Nevermore, it's me Apple. Don't you recognize me?" The jaws that were humming with purple light snapped shut, Apple's hair swayed a couple of times indicating Nevermore sucking air through her nostrils sniffing her. "That's right you do remember me don't you?" As if dismissing Apple's presence Nevermore turned her head and released a low growl, eyes locked onto Daring who was trying very hard not to draw the sword and shield he was keeping on his person.

"Great. She remembers me as well." Daring suddenly realized that he wished he had gotten Dexter's 'swooning vision' That managed to fell the beast in one hit back on day one, until he remember the secondary eyelids that acted as sunglasses, and he realized that he was very well off with the power to get very far away very fast.

As if she were reading his thoughts, Nevermore slammed her foot down in front of the group forcing them to back away.

"Everyone! Get away from her nest!" Following Apple's command everyone back away from the nest a good distance.

Nevermore took her eyes off of the group when she looked up to the air at the sound of screeching, and was soon greeted by a phoenix who landed down in front of the group. Nevermore's initial reaction was hostility, then confusion as she looked at this new arrival with her head turning off to the side.

"Ah Apple, is she okay?" Faybelle asked as she nervously looked between the two individuals.

"I'm not sure... I think they might know each other." Apple stated as she confusedly looked between the two of them.

While Apple was thinking about that, a rainbow blast came off from the side and struck the phoenix with enough force to send it clear off to the side, not only that but the blast of magic threw her into reverse as well, turning it into a ice phoenix that shattered on the tree line.

"Ouch!" Hearing that familiar voice, Apple rushed over to the giant pile of ice that was the bird that just kept Nevermore from frying them and started sorting through the broken ice. She had seen better days since coming to this school, the least of which she didn't have a wing made out of ice before in place of a arm, also she usually isn't butt naked either. "Hey Apple." Raven said awkwardly, before her pale and cold flesh immediately reddened when she saw her current state of dress. "I guess this is pretty awkward isn't it?" Flesh that reddened even deeper when Daring came over to investigate and saw her, causing Raven to move her wing to cover as much of herself as possible.

"Daring!" Apple snapped immediately realizing this situation. "Give Raven your..."

Jacket, is what Apple was going to say. Then she saw where the rainbow blast came from, the Jabberwocky was back, carrying in it's jaws a dumpster full of old cafeteria food, not that was the most concerning thing about it right now, no those were big blue slitted eyes narrowing a glare at them. Nevermore, the lizardly saint that she is, moved in front of the Jabberwocky though apparently not to fight. As if inspecting the contents of his catch Nevermore sniff the dumpster before battering it away with her tail and snarling angrily.

"She prefers fresh food." Raven commented watching the interactions between the two of them.

"Raven, that doesn't make me feel better." Daring stated the look on his face that of a mouse that just spotted a two angry cats fighting over him. "I wouldn't worry about it." Raven commented waving a non transformed arm.

"What do you mean Raven?" Apple asked as she made a effort to cloth Raven's awkwardly transformed body in Daring's Book Ball Jacket.

"You don't know much about dragons do you?" Raven asked wrapping Daring's jacket around her waist while her wing continued to cover up the rest of her.

"I haven't found any books about them in the library. Why what's happening?" Apple asked nervously.

"Lemme put it to yah this way. First comes love, then comes marriage, then comes Nevermore with the baby carriage..." As if finally having enough of her incompetent mate, Nevermore roared at him fire, teeth, fire et all. "Then comes divorce, ugly, messy, divorce." Raven stated cringing at what was about to happen.

* * *

 **Review Section** :

DJ: Yah they went there. But as you can see Nevermore's loyalty isn't something so half baked.

JanessaVR: Yah I could see how that might make for bad leadership, if Mira, a lady whose specialty is in healing magic wasn't standing right there.

Aya Rose: I understand if you don't want to keep reading, but your criticisms have been noted for me.

Wade: Does she know more, or do they know more and not telling anyone?

Charlie: The Specialist is Morgan, she has a short fuse, and she has left them with everything they need to help themselves, her concern is the Obscuris.


	39. Chapter 39

**Author's Note** : Okay, I've got a good idea for the end now, I just need to wrap everything up from my original plan, so thumbs up to me! Read, Review, Favorite and Enjoy!

* * *

Chapter 39: You Need to Trust us Magic Mirror

Dragons as it turns out, are similar to bears in many ways. The same as bears, a male dragon could not be left alone with a male cub because the elder male would try to eliminate the younger male to cut down on competition for future mates. Likewise a male dragon would neglect their eggs when left alone with them, letting the temperature drop to dangerously low temperatures because when a dragon egg incubates at higher temperatures they produce a male dragon. Of course, this competition between male and female dragon was a necessary evil, if not for this competition between them then no female dragons would be produced, and the species would effectively grind to a halt. At the same time if the two mating dragons cooperated to ensure the survival of their species, then the world as a whole would face a major crisis from a explosion in the population of oversize flying fire breathing lizards. Not that that latter part had anything to do with the two dragons trying to rip each other apart right now. Nevermore could match the Jabberwocky shot for shot in terms of fire power, each attempt to Riddlish the other dragon into submission resulted in a blast of fire that would stop the attempt cold, literally. Seeing that Nevermore could easily counter it's morning breath the Jabberwocky resorted to it's round house maneuvers with it's oversize fists, but Nevermore was more agile and whenever the dragon did get caught she would shrink out of it's grasp and slip back into distance attacks.

"Wow she's really letting him have it." Daring commented looking at the battle between the two. Even though Nevermore was firing more blasts at the other dragon, the Jabberwocky was spraying it's Riddlish all over the area icing over the fire attacks which slammed into the ground with shattering blows often turning whatever they came into contact with into ice too.

"So is he, what are we gonna do about him?" Apple asked looking at the big scary dragon that was intent on having them all for dinner.

"We've got the dragon slayer sword don't we?" Daring asked directing the group's attention to the sword that Lizzie had rested on her shoulder.

"Do you wanna get in between those two to use it?" Apple asked directing her hand towards the two warring Dragons. Lizzie smiled devilishly before getting the blade ready transforming it back from a ring.

"Lizzie no offence or anything but..." Daring looked between the Jabberwocky and the sword concerned. "Are you sure?"

"Oh please I use to wrestle Jabberwocky's back in Wonderland I'll be fine." Lizzie stated dismissively walking past Daring.

"Wait wait wait!" Daring picked Lizzie up by the collar of her shirt and put her back to where she was standing when the conversation started. "You wrestled Jabberwockys when you were still in Wonderland?"

"Aha. What's your point?" Lizzie asked cocking a questioning brow.

"Lizzie weren't you like... seven when you were last in Wonderland?" Daring asked confused if not scared. Looking thoroughly unamused, Lizzie grabbed Daring by his wrist, twisted it into a break, before slamming him into the ground on her opposite side, again. Luckily Daring still had the healing buff Ginger gave him earlier. "...Carry on." Daring Squeaked weakly.

Point of interest, Apple had already learned that Lizzie, the White Queen, and apparently four other monarchs within Wonderland all had some kind of symbiotic relationship with Wonderland, one that apparently had ludicrous amounts of Riddlish magic going through their veins on a daily basis, there is no way that Lizzie would be scared by the threat of something like a Jabberwocky. If anything she had a nostalgic look on her face watching the battle between the Jabberwocky and Nevermore.

"I hate to be the bearer of bad news here but we do need a actual plan that does not involve being hit by either of those two." Ramona stated using her wolfish nose to separate Apple from Lizzie.

"Raven." Lizzie looked over to Raven who was still doing a bad job of covering herself back up. "You are the dragon expert here, would you like to offer some advice." Lizzie stated, stepping out of the way of a ice chunk that had come dangerously close to them.

"We need to separate them." Raven stated as if speaking the obvious. "Nevermore isn't going to let anyone near her nest, and that includes us which is going to make working difficult."

"Oh sure, we'll just go get a Djinn and wish the Jabberwocky away!" Ramona stated in a growl.

"Genies can do that?" Apple asked looking confused.

"Djinn's are giant masses of magical power and spite, they can do whatever the heck they please!" Ramona stated letting her severe impatience show through.

"Huh. Now I wish you didn't send back that Genie you summoned a while back Raven." Apple commented prompting those present to gawk at the Princess and witch, especially at the witch although a clearly suspicious look was mixed in as well. "Raven. You did send the Genie back right?"

Shaking her head at the two, Lizzie charged towards the Jabberwocky, who struck towards, her, and for his troubles was met with a impromptu manicure when Lizzie slashed through his nails with the blade.

* * *

The school was starting to go nuts, the Obscuris that was flying over head was now inside and it was starting show on the building. Fissures appeared as the floor split open and walls started to crumble, only to be mended again as the glamour charm set to work trying to repair the building, which only made the situation even worst as the opened fissures nearly crush people who would fall in when they close.

"We need to get the student body out of this school." Mira noted looking around the hallway as it continuously fell apart and put itself back together again.

Mira had been experimenting with her new form and the effects of Riddlish, she already switched herself and Milton's genders back to normal. But Riddlish had other effects as well, switching around genders as needed, male with it's faster recovery time, and female with it's much greater flexibility. The end result was proving to be a potent combination.

"Astute observation." Dexter came up behind Mira. "Any idea on how?"

"We should probably find a way of containing the Obscuris. If we can do that we can make the halls of the school safe enough to traverse and evacuate." Mira stated scratching her chin.

"This thing is magic right? Maybe we can use iron to trap it." Mira cocked a brow suspiciously at Dexter. "Don't look at me like that I pay attention in class."

"Forgive me, It is not you that I am suspicious of, but rather this school's educational system." Mira stated in a tone of voice that was deep with suspicion.

"Mm Hm. You just think poorly of me and the rest of the student body." Mira did not say anything to counteract Dexter's statement. "Can we go somewhere a little more stable to talk? I don't like staying still in a death trap that's falling apart at the seams." Dexter explained dodging a piece of falling ceiling that nearly beamed him on the head.

"Over there." Mira pointed over to one of the Mirror screens that usually blurted out whatever Blondie had been reporting on that particular day.

"Mira I don't think that..." Mira interrupted Dexter by grabbing him and chucking him inside the Mirror through the use of her Knack.

"Oh." Dexter didn't entirely know where he was, it dark and foggy, aside that there were various stands resembling see through doorways without doors. Looking in one he saw the next class room over as it struggled to hold itself together. "For now, the Obscuris hasn't gotten into the school's network of Mirrors." Mira explained brushing off the dust from her clothes. "Now, what is it that you want to talk to me about?"

"Why do you not like this place?" Dexter asked cocking a suspicious brow at Mira.

"Excuse me?" Mira asked cocking a brow of her own to Dexter.

"You hold this school and it's students in disdain. You lured my brother to the girl's dorm and used him as a guinea pig for your little force field over the girl's dorm, something that I can only summarize as a rather cruel practical joke on your part, and didn't even bother posting a notice to the rest of the school about it." Dexter stated still very sore about being electrified and having Raven's potion stock dropped on him on top of that. "A very poor way to thank the people who went out of their way to save your life if memory serves."

"My Lady's dragon Nevermore and Miss Apple White were the ones who saved me, for which I am massively grateful." Mira stated adjusting her glasses as she cocked a glare. "You and your brother on the other hand are the two idiot Charmings who spent the trip standing around being Charming and little else."

"Well that hasn't gotten us anywhere, I have to say that I don't feel very trusted right now. Which is unfortunate since I believe that is something we're gonna need to pull our butts out of this swirling vortex of death called a school." Dexter stated pacing around the area around the mirror that they entered through.

"I don't trust you." Mira stated flatly. "That rope you recall me being on the end of, how about I tell you about how I ended up there." Dexter looked around for something to sit down on but ultimately decided to remain standing and crossed his arms. "One day, a very _charming_ young man came by one of the villages that we frequent looking for help, and a very stupid little girl believed him, so she led him back to our camp, and the next day he was leading the group of butt pains who shot me in the ass with a iron arrow and tied ropes around our necks!"

"A Charming? A Charming was the one who led that band of religious psychopath's to hunt your group down and murder you lot?" Dexter stated surprise plain on her features. "What surprised to learn your family business is all about?" Mira asked cocking her brow in suspicion. "After all you 'Charming' Princes made your name hunting down and murdering 'Evil' Witches like me! 'Vicious' Monsters like Ramona! 'Devious' Tricksters like Faybelle!"

"My family is not like that Mira!" Dexter snapped back plain and simply.

"Oh really?" Mira grabbed Dexter by both sides of his head and held him face to face. "Why don't I show you exactly what your family is like!" Dexter screeched in pain as he felt being ripped out of his own skin, feeling a chant in his ears ' _Come with me to a different time and a different place with a different face._ '

* * *

When Dexter could feel his face again he felt... wrong. But not at the same time. He... She was in a camp ground, out in the forest, she had just finished the... poultices, for those farmers that hurt themselves in the field and went up to a crude mirror and sink combination to brush her teeth and saw Mira on the other side, saw me on the other side. Mira heard a bell ring from the other side of the camp, a tell tale sign that they had a new client that morning and so she stepped outside and saw one of the villagers from the next town over. A traveler busted his knee cap in their town, Mira went over there to get him patched up. Knight, armor was a poor choice for this area, offered little in the way of mobility, and the shiny bits attracted the unpleasant and hungry, and the curse that is meant to keep them away made a exception for 'canned meat' as her mother was so fond of calling them. He was handsome looking at the very least, blonde hair, blue eyes and well sculpted features, the kind of person that her mother warned her to stay away from, but she wasn't here right now.

* * *

Dexter snapped out of the trance on the floor gasping for air, not knowing about what he was just put through, he didn't know enough about magic to make any sort of educated guess.

"Welcome to my mind pretty boy." Mira stated pacing around the Charming boy with a glare burning down on his head. "You saw that tale of a stupid, naive little girl. One who dealt in potions and poultices and who believed the charming fairy tale prince when he expressed his interest in learning more about such things so that he could look after himself the next time he busts his leg in the swamp. Why don't I tell you about what he did with that information?" Mira grabbed Dexter by his face again pressed her thumbs below his eyes.

"GAAAHH!"

* * *

This time Mira was lying on the floor, a throbbing pain was going up her side from the iron arrow in her buttocks while knights ran around harassing and beating on her fellow scarbacks. The familiar burn of iron dug into Mira's hand as she felt someone crush it underneath their foot, looking up she saw the familiar form of the same Charming young man who's busted knee she had treated the day before.

* * *

Dexter was dropped to the ground again left wanting for air, Mira was standing over him looking down on him with a contemptuous glare.

"Yah know, my mother use to tell me stories about this place. A playground for elite nobles, who get to spend their days bullying, abusing and ganging up on their much stronger and far less human neighbors who are put into a situation in which they cannot defend themselves!" Mira stated in a voice that leaked her contempt, red magical smoke coming off of her body before she eventually calmed down again. "My apologies I lost my self restraint there for a moment."

"You don't have to apologize Mira." Dexter stated as he got back up.

"And yet I must, it was not my attention to pile on my grievances when I brought you in here." Mira explained going back to the mirror. Her tone of voice indicated strongly like she was troubling Dexter, but at the same time a sort sarcastic apology as well, as if he would be offended by the idea.

"That's not what I meant." Dexter stated grabbing Mira by her arm.

"With all do respect Dexter..." Mira was interrupted by the sound of her Mirror Phone ringing, prompting her to pick it up and answer greeted by the sight of Apple on it. "Hello? Oh you found Raven?" Mira stated happy by the news, before her face creased with something unpleasant. "You're where with what? She left what in her sock drawer? Alright we're on it." Mira put her phone away before she turned her attention to Dexter again. "With all do respect, I don't believe you. She's wrong, but so are you. This place doesn't define who people are, people themselves will define who they are, good and bad. Got it?" Mira stated in a uncompromising tone of voice.

"That sounds fair." Dexter stated leaning away from Mira's intimidating glare.

"Good." Mira stated going back through the mirror that the two of them came through. "Come on, Raven's got a Djinn in her sock drawer." To Mira's statement, Dexter's face twisted in Confusion. "How is alcohol going to help us!?" Mira grabbed Dexter by his collar and yanked him to the other side of the mirror.

* * *

Once Morgan trapped the Obscuris inside of the school, she immediately went looking around for the means to even further incapacitate it. As luck would eventually have it, the detention goblin's former room was filled with spools of golden thread. Morgan used her magic to command the enchanted thread to weave itself into a long rope, and tied that rope into a lasso. Morgan swung the loop of rope over her head as the Obscuris crashed through the floor into the hallway outside of the detention goblin's little hidy hole.

"Perfect timing." Morgan threw the golden rope through the air and hooked the unstable mass of darkness around it's 'head' and began pulling on it, making it crash into the ceiling, the walls and the floor as she attempted to make the thing come closer so that she could help it. In the mean as the Obscuris struggled it became increasingly erratic and each time it collided with the school it became a little more unstable.

* * *

"So as I understand it, for some strange reason I am not aware of, Raven summoned a ridiculously powerful wind spirit with the power grant nearly any wish you could imagine, and instead of getting rid of it or use it she shoved it into a random bottle and left it in her sock drawer?" Dexter asked as Mira towed him along the increasingly unstable hallway.

"Correct. Apparently she's been quite busy lately and forgot about it." Mira explained, dodging a piece of collapsing ceiling that nearly came down on top of her head before it floated back up into place above them.

"So we're suppose to grab this super magical thing and punt the Jabberwocky back to Wonderland with it?" Dexter asked dodging a section of floor that gave way under him.

"We are to secure it, and keep it far away from the rampaging monsters running around. Because we've already got a Jabberwocky, a Obscuris and apparently Nevermore's gone rogue because the Jabberwocky plowed her, not to mention all of the mutated creatures that have probably been spawned by the Jabberwocky. We don't need a spiteful Genie on the loose as well." Mira explained as several of the walls exploded before them briefly cutting them off.

"The What did what to who?" Dexter asked his face scrunched up in mixed looks of horror and confusion. "No, No before that. Why only secure the Djinn?"

"If someone yanked you from your home, stuffed you into a bottle then forgot about you in their sock drawer what kind of mood would you be in?" Mira questioned cocking a suspicious brow. Dexter gulped as he saw the walls go back to normal. "Raven's the only one who stands a chance of controlling it, even then it's not necessarily going to be cooperative. More important than using it ourselves is to make sure that it doesn't come into contact with one of the other monsters running around here."

Because that was literally the last thing that they needed right now, an absurdly dangerous creature receiving a ridiculous boost in power from a overly spiteful mass of magical power. While Mira was explaining that, the hallway came under attack. The swirling mass of darkness broke through the floor and was thrown up above, grazing Mira in the process. The hallway slanted downwards as if on a giant teeter totter, sent both Mira and Dexter sliding down the hallway.

"Crud, Crud CRUD!" Dexter slid after Mira as the two went crashing towards the end of the hallway, directly towards a huge glass window overlooking the bladed lawn. "MIRA ENCHANT THE DAMN-CRUD!" Mira crashed through the window first, her limp form was sailing over the sharp blades and was on the verge of being skewered. Dexter made a aerodynamic pose with his body and picked up speed. Dexter caught Mira as she was about to land on the blades, his own feet hooked on the edge of the window before slamming her through the window below him before falling in himself. "Okay, so can we take a break for a few minuets?"

* * *

 **Review Section** :

Charlie: That's always a bonus. I thought they were pretty cool. That would be quite preferable yes.

DJ: Yeah Nevermore plowed the Jabberwocky, and now they've got a nest with nest eggs to show for it. Thank you for saying so.

Wade: Thank you for your confidence in me. Time for a little bit of hell to be raised I'd say.


	40. Chapter 40

**Author's Note** : Allow me to clear something up, I've been getting a lot of grief about Mira lately so I will put this bluntly. I honestly don't care, Mira is my OC, of whom I am projecting a little of myself on, and my High school life was crap, through repeated verbal abuse I was chased into hanging out in the teacher's lounge during all periods of the day I didn't spend in class because then I was the one who got in trouble when I told them to stop, so one day when that abuse got physical I fought back and chased that punk as far away as possible and had to get two teachers to pull me off of him. Cost to replace two shirt buttons, approximately twenty dollars, my punishment a week's suspension, getting to spend the rest of my highschool days in peace and quiet, priceless.

* * *

Chapter 40: The Time Has Come to Go Home Queen of Hearts

This was very uncomfortable for Dexter. He gets enough gripe already for his knack that Knocks women, and only women for that matter, out cold, which combined with his bookish nature, and a particular magazine his brother recommended to him to help him with confidence with girls that he was caught reading, and he has been black listed by the entire school. And now he was digging through the drawers of one the school's rising stars and Apple's best friend. Just kill him now.

"What is this?" Dexter picked up something that looked vaguely tube shaped. "Is it a chew toy for Nevermore?" It was purple, it had some kind of switch at it's base right next to two... "UGh!" At once Dexter dropped the toy back into the drawer and rubbed his hands on his shirt. "I hope that isn't a chew toy for Nevermore!" If it was then that means that Raven's been training Nevermore to attack people in a very private way. Dropping the toy Dexter spotted a soda bottle with a swirling mass inside of it. "Unless Raven's hoarding soda in her dresser drawers I think it's safe to say this is what I'm looking for." Dexter closed up the drawers before he had to look at Raven's unmentionables any longer. "Now, what about her?"

Mira had taken a nasty hit from that monster that's been tearing the school apart and as such she wasn't exactly in the best shape. Her face had been forcibly twisted off to the side while her skull remained in the same position and her arm was broken in several places with lacerations from having gone through the window. He wasn't sure but he was fairly certain that having her face holes rearranged was making it fairly hard to breath, the fact that she was doing so through a emptied pen tube he stabbed into her neck he suspected also made it difficult to breath.

"Well I can't just leave you here either." After confirming that Mira was relatively safe to move, Dexter bent down and picked her up in a bridal style and began carrying her over to the wheel chair that had come from the disabled room on the first floor that had been caved in when Mira's mother dropped that rock on the dorm.

The next issue here was that the hallway was still ridiculously unstable, that witch from Raven's family was trying to tie down the Obscuris using magical golden rope. With that in mind the safest way through was around. Dexter threw a chair out the window and dropped Mira on the other side, she was thankfully still unconscious from exposure to the Obscuris earlier on, so she didn't seem to notice his rough handling of her. Dexter jumped out of the window as it put itself back together, now was the simple task of navigating the razor sharp lawn in front of him.

"Apple it's me Dexter..." Dexter stated into his mirror phone.

"Dexter? Where's Mira?" Apple's face on Dexter's phone asked looking worried.

"She got grazed by the Obsuris and is in rough shape, I've got the Genie and I'm on my way to you right now."

"You might wanna hold off on that. It's getting..." Apple was interrupted by a explosion that went off behind her. "It's getting kind of hairy, the undead staff zombie thingies that Faybelle and Ginger made have showed up and are shooting at the Jabberwocky."

"'Undead Staff Zombie Thingies?'" Dexter asked in disbelief, Apple adjusted where her video for her phone was pointed at, there was what suspiciously looked like a Bear, Dear and Griffin skeletons covered in leaves and wood that had grown around their bodies, spewing out spells to attack the Jabberwocky with. "I hate this school." The glasses wearing prince stated flatly. "I'll be in the woods full of twisted Wonderlandian creatures as soon as I get away from the main building being cursed into oblivion through the swords growing out of the ground AND SERIOUSLY WHY AM I STILL GOING TO THIS SCHOOL!?"

* * *

While Dexter was freaking out Apple was still trying to not get caught up in the marital dispute between Nevermore and the Jabberwocky, since trying to beat the excrement out of each other on ground level wasn't working the two of them were taking to the skies to duke it out. This was disadvantageous for Nevermore because two of the three undead magic cannons that Faybelle made were stuck on the ground while she was in the air. Their other air born specialist was also grounded thanks to technical difficulties.

"Come on how hard is it to turn into a bird!" Ramona growled pacing back and forth in front of Raven. "Do I have to talk about that time I dragged you off to..."

"Ramona my only article of clothing is Daring's ugly jacket, my dragon is high above fighting against a monster I accidentally pumped up, and half of my friends are missing/most likely transformed into a inanimate object waiting to be broken in this rampage thanks to me! I can assure you I have plenty of negative emotions building up!" And yet none of that seemed to matter, the one day that she wasn't trying to explode her body seemed to finally cooperate with her long standing requests.

"Wait..." Apple waved her hands around confused about something for second. "If riddlish throws things in reverse. Then could Raven's magic be affected too? Instead of being charged by bad emotions it's being charged by good ones?" For a few seconds Raven and Ramona looked at each other with a questioning confused look before looking back at Apple. "What is it? What's wrong?"

"Mostly we can't believe we didn't think of that first." Raven stated closing her eyes and entering a meditative position.

Christmas Eve, almost a decade ago, one of the last times she saw her mother well and truly happy, a safe place that she would go to in her darkest hours when this nightmare that she called life had her beaten to the ground.

( _70%_ )

"Well that's going to be nice while it lasts." Raven stated breathing out a sigh.

A duel burst of magic went down each of Raven's arms as they were quickly replaced with feathery appendages and soon a Thunder Bird was raising into the air on currents of wind. Raven blew chunks of ice the size of pumpkins at the Jabberwocky, which then had a headlong collision with Riddlish and turned into fire. Raven followed that fire up by summoning a tornado with a flap of her wings, the air mixing with with fire and creating a fire storm, before the air magic was reversed by the Jabberwocky too, and transformed into a pillar of baked earth trapping the Jabberwocky inside. Raven let out a commanding screech and Nevermore was quick to respond, climbing into the air, coating herself in fire and dive bombing the trapped Jabberwocky. The fire turned to a dense layer of blue ice and proved itself as a highly effective armor to protect Nevermore as she hit the baked earth and knocking the Jabberwocky into the ground with a loud crash that took several of the trees with it. Now it wasn't moving.

"Out of my way!" Lizzie was moving towards the Jabberwocky sword drawn, intent on reeking bloody havoc, but was stopped when Raven dropped to the ground again. The fact that she did so in human form completely in the nude in the presence of a boy like Daring told Apple that she had something important that she wanted to say.

"Wait look." The ground the Jabberwocky had landed on was turning into wood and saw dust, while the trees were turning to earth, then wind. "The Jabberwocky is bleeding riddlish magic, forget about slaying it, we might not even be able to get close enough to hurt it. That's not all." Raven tightened her grasp on Lizzie's arm. "So far as I know it's only a rumor, but in the past, when powerful magical creatures were still being hunted, their survival instincts would inflict a 'curse' against those responsible when they died. One of my ancestors took advantage of that curse, to transform the ones afflicted into a clone of the beast that they had slain, but before that curse was put into effect, those who slayed a monster would die horribly soon after."

"Really? It sounds more like the words of a dragon lover to me." Lizzie stated locking eyes with Raven as she stabbed the tip of her weapon into the ground.

"I can't say that you're wrong, only that if we do kill it, and that doesn't undo the effect of the Riddlish, then that means that we will have destroyed our only way of undoing all the Riddlish." Raven explained prompting Lizzie cock a brow suspiciously.

"What about the book by Doctor what's her name?" Lizzie asked still deeply suspicious of Raven. "That will take a considerable amount of time and effort, this guy on the other hand breath's Riddlish in the same way that Nevermore breaths fire, he can suck in as he can blow out." Raven stated a pleading look in her eyes.

"You really do like dragons don't you?" Lizzie asked before she walked by Raven on her original course of action to finish off the Jabberwocky.

"Lizzie he just wants to go home!" That stopped Lizzie dead in her tracks. "I think that is something all three of us can sympathize with."

Lizzie made a deep sigh, she took the sword in her hands and turned it back into a ring slipping it on her finger in the process.

"What's the plan?" Lizzie asked in a dead panned tone of voice.

"Anyone think to scan that book into their Mirror Pads?" Raven asked prompting Apple and Faybelle to look at each other with a look of 'duh!'

A barrier was erected over Apple, combined with the riddlish cipher she was protected from the massive bleed out of power that was coming off of the Jabberwocky, and was holding a wand crafted by Faybelle, Apple, Ash and Birch wrapped in Mistle toe, according to Faybelle and Raven a excellent combination for healing.

"Excuse me." The Jabberwocky groaned as he looked to Apple, off to the side he could see Nevermore circling above him perhaps getting ready to finish him off. "My friends tell me that they can use this to heal you. But if you don't start sucking the Riddlish magic you've been letting out back up, it'll only hurt you some more." The Jabberwocky gave Apple this confused look, but eventually complied. The dragon made a show of inhaling deeply sucking in deeply and at once rainbow colored magic started coming off of the forest and the school.

* * *

"Come on, go down already!" Morgan was still attempting to wrangle the uncooperative Obscuris, she needed to keep it at ground level until the Jabberwocky could be dealt with, if it got away from her then she miss her opportunity to clamp the damn thing down. As Morgan was thinking about that, she saw rainbow colored magic being pulled upwards from the mass of darkness. "That be my cue!" Morgan took the shield she had on her back and threw it in the path of the darkness as it was pulling away. The darkness was absorbed into the shield, goblin forged metal, able to trap and lock in both the effects of riddlish and the living mass of curses known as a Obscuris. Unable to swap the Obscuris with something else, the Riddlish naturally defaulted to it's other option and soon a bright radiating light started coming off of the shield, like it was made by the embodiment of all that was good in the world. "Well now that is an interesting result." Morgan walked over to the shield she left on the ground and placed her hand on it, the light erupted her hand in white burning flames causing Morgan to step back several feet, recoiling in pain. "ESCH! Well I'm not touching that any time soon. Still..." Morgan looked down at what use to be a Obscuris. "That's good to know."

The girl at the center of that hell was in bad shape. Her limbs were bent at odd angles and none of her skin was fitting right, it wouldn't surprise Morgan if she was already dead. Suddenly another bird shaped Rainbow mass came down from the ceiling as if replacing the one that was now in the shield. The malformed girl made several snapping sounds as her bits went back into place while her form was replaced by Feathers and soon a swan was standing on the ground honking in confusion.

"What the Fairy God Mother is going on here!?" Duchess Swan snapped turning back to human form with a poof of bird feathers, standing straight up and looking mighty indignant while she was at it.

* * *

Blondie had a head ache, she had numerous leaves and branches tangled in her hair, and for some reason she had numerous acorns in her throat and nearly choked on one getting them out.

"Ugh. What happened?" Blondie sat down and scratched her head confused at the turn of events.

"I think you got turned into a tree." Rosabella stated as she stumbled over and picked up one of the acorns that Blondie had spat out. "And me into a squirrel. I think I shoved this into your mouth." Rosabella stated looking at the Acorn in her hand.

"Oh yah, because that makes me feel way better." Blondie stated letting out a tired sigh.

Suddenly both girls were scared off to the side as the clawed foot of a rainbow came down on where they were standing.

"Are we sure we're going the right way?" Apple asked riding on the head of the Jabberwocky as it trudged through the forest. Even though they seemed to have tamed the Jabberwocky, thanks to Nevermore who was curled up on Raven's lap snarling in it's ear, the fact of the matter was that long before the Jabberwocky was released their was a chunk of riddlish magic released into the forest wreaking havoc, they still had to find that.

"It breathes riddlish magic Apple, it can sense the source of it as easily as you can tell the air is breathable." Raven replied wrapped in the cloak of moss and bear fur. "We're going in the right direction." As Raven was saying that, the Jabberwocky suddenly stopped.

"Time to get off and look around." Faybelle was the first to get off, gliding to the ground as she started looking around. "I don't see anything." Faybelle stated looking around the area. The unfortunate thing about Riddlish is that anything can literally be anything. A tree can be a monster, a rock can be a princess, and portal to another world can be anything. "Can I get some help down here?" The Jabberwocky leaned it's neck down and tickled the feelers on it's face on a bush. Faybelle leaned down and saw what looked like a small hole in the ground. "Is this it?"

"Move." Raven already had a finger pointed at the hole and Faybelle moved out of the way. At once a bolt of fire shot out from Raven's finger tip and slammed into the hole, producing a small explosion. After the smoke cleared a spiky mass of ice was now covering the hole in the ground. "There's concentrated Riddlish magic coming out of that hole similar to what the Jabberwocky had been breathing."

"It's a rabbit hole!" Maddie jumped down from the dragon and got on her hands and knees as she yanked the ice chunk Raven had just blasted down there, inhaling deeply the air tainted by Wonderland. "It must be Bunny's, she said she came straight here when Wonderland was under attack."

"A what?" Apple asked looking confused.

"If memory serves, the story of Alice in Wonderland stated that Alice entered Wonderland through a portal that had just been opened up by the White Rabbit as he was on his way back to the Queen of Heart's court. As I recall though, that portal sealed up immediately." Raven explained as she scratched her head in confusion. "Another source of magic must be interfering with it."

"Agh!" Ramona who was walking behind them in her wolf form and had picked up Blondie in the mean while made a noise like she had smelled something unpleasant. "What's that smell?"

"Is it coming from Wonderland?" Faybelle asked glancing down to the hole and her face scrunching up having hit something foul.

"I know that smell. Can you dig up this area?" Apple asked looking down.

"I'm not going anywhere near that stink." Ramona stated in a uncompromising tone of voice.

"I wasn't talking to you." At Apple's statement the Jabberwocky reached over with one of his oversize front limbs and scooped out a huge chunk of earth, revealing a tank below.

"It's a tank?" Ramona questioned looking down at the tank.

"It's a septic tank." Faybelle stated kneeling down to examine it. "It must belong to the school." Faybelle spotted a pipe welded onto the side of the tank, and it wasn't going in the direction of the school. "But where does this lead to?"

"Oh move aside!" Apple snapped jumping off the Jabberwocky's back. "I'm not afraid of a little bad smell!" Apple yanked open the lid and looked inside. "Everyone look at this!"

"I'm pretty sure we don't want to do that." Faybelle stated backing away.

Raven slid off of the Jabberwocky keeping a tight grip on her cloak and whatever modesty she had left and knelled in front of the hatch Apple had opened.

"Well that looks familiar." A Giant mass of postulating flesh, with teeth, tentacles and a few eyes here or there. "It's a Zeugi."

"Well I feel kind of silly going out of our way to get that Origin for you from that other Zeugi now." Apple stated sitting up.

"Well, that one was a specialty created creature by my mother, since she said that it was safe to use that it's best just to take her word for it. For starters Zeugi are usually created by accident, from irresponsible alchemists dumping their leftovers down the drain." 'Irresponsible Alchemists.' Was that miserable detention goblin bound and determined to harass them every chance possible? "In any case I believe that a degree of intent was behind this one. That Rabbit hole was almost directly on top of the tank where it was being kept, and that tentacle down there looks like it leads off somewhere else."

"That's all well and good Raven, but isn't it about time that you start looking into getting some clothes on?" Apple asked noting that Raven was still wearing that shabby cloak that Faybelle made for her.

"Too true, I suppose that I don't have anything convenient like Ramona that changes form with me." Raven stated letting out a sigh.

"Only you could call having a wardrobe made out of nothing but your own hair convenient." Ramona stated snorting in frustration.

"In any case, what are we doing about him?" Ramona asked directing the group's attention to the Jabberwocky who was still standing at attention for the group.

"Oh I forgot about that." Raven stated prompting the group to sigh. "Nevermore, I know that it's inconvenient of me to ask, but I'll need your sweater, and some of your scales." Nodding her head in acknowledgement, Nevermore landed in front of Raven and easily slipped out of the sweater, several of her shed scales inside. Even though it was just the skin off of a skin walker, it retained the same properties, chiefly to absorb the abilities of those that it comes into contact with. Thus when Raven held the large end out and fit it over the Jabberwocky's nose, the Jabberwocky shrunk down to a minimal size as if being fitted to the sweater instead of the other way around. "There you go, you can fit down the hole now, but when you get home, I've got a favor to ask." Raven used a simple item creation spell to turn a tree branch into a sheet of paper and a pen and berries into ink. "Lizzie, is there any thing you would like to say to your mother? I only ask because I feel it necessary to inform her that we've opened the way back to Wonderland."

* * *

 **Review Section** :

Guest: Superior in every way but one, numbers. I don't know if I mentioned this or not, but only about one in ten people are actually what you would call magic users. There's people like Darling, whose bodies are infused with magical power, and possessed over powered Knacks, but they aren't what you would call a magic user. Everyone else has a tiny little bit of magic in them.

DJ: Need I remind you that when they do hatch they'll only be chicks. Nevermore's sixteen/seventeen and she's only recently big enough to ride, and that's with her size changing powers.

Wade: That's the benefit to her life style, she doesn't have time to think about all the horrible things trying to kill her because she has to focus on the horrible thing trying to kill her right now.

Charlie: I haven't quite decided yet, still working on that improved ending I was telling you guys about.


	41. Chapter 41

**Author's Note** : Still in the wrap up for the Jabberwocky, but after the next chapter we'll officially begin finishing the various loose ends I've left untied throughout this story.

* * *

Chapter 41: It is time to clean up your mess, Evil Queen

Raven had been escorted to the Chem-Myth-ry lab where her dresser drawer was located, the long walk on dragon back butt naked left Raven with a lot of time to think about their situation. Even with the Jabberwocky gone a large number of students were still unaccounted for, search parties had been put together to find them. Among the missing were Dexter and Mira who were suppose to bring them the Djinn that Raven had left in here. Mira had been hit by the Obscuris during the chaos, Dexter didn't mention her symptoms at the time, though from what she heard he might have been freaking out a little bit from... well... everything that was happening that day really. Raven was the one who overreacted trying to protect Apple from the riddlish causing everyone's bits and bobs to get switched around, and mentally she still justified her decision, unlike Cedar Apple wasn't a wood golem, the transformation into a being made out of wood could have stopped her heart cold, and likewise if Cedar had finish her transformation into humanity she would be dead from the bleed out, or when her solid wood body turned into indiscriminate human flesh without any internal organs. Even so by saving two people Raven might have hurt a lot of others.

( _10%_ )

And yet, Raven was barely giving any magic off, as if something had been removed from her which was putting out so much power before.

"I'm all dressed now." Raven shouted, prompting Apple to come in and hug Raven.

"Do you have any idea how worried I was about you?" Apple's hug tightened up around Raven's midsection. "Why didn't you tell us what happened to you?"

"If I had any way of communicating with you guys I would have." Raven began the process of rubbing circles into Apple's back. ( _15%_ ) "Apple, I really feel kinda guilty right now, which means that we're going to have another little incident soon, and I'd really like to not explode all over you." Raven stated as she uncomfortably squirmed in Apple's grasp. Raven wasn't lying in a sense, if her powers were working like normal she would have exploded five times by now. Perhaps she was burned out from earlier, if not then something might be wrong with her.

"You!" Apple immediately moved protectively in front of Raven as a familiar white haired girl with feathers decorating her clothes stormed into the room glaring accusingly at Raven. "You!" Duchess snapped her finger pointed at Raven's face.

"Duchess, now is not the time to level what ever petty complaint you have against Raven!" Apple snapped glaring at Duchess herself.

"'Petty complaint?' Thanks to her I spent the entire day getting my insides continuously rearranged while bouncing around the school grounds like a pinball!" Duchess snapped leaning into Apple's face as she screamed at her.

"Oh, that was you..." Raven stated a guilty tone in her voice.

"Yes that was me thank you very much for your concern!" Duchess snapped again turning her attention back to Raven.

"Raven do you know what she's talking about?" Apple asked pushing Duchess and Raven away from another.

"How do I put this? Do you remember that giant black thing zig zagging in the sky earlier?" Raven asked looking nervous.

"That 'Giant Black Thing' was me!" Duchess snapped glaring accusingly. "While this brat was running around being me, I was stuck with all the curses in her system from all the crud she does on a regular basis!"

"Excuse me?" Apple asked not quite understanding this situation here. "I don't know what you're talking about but I know for certain that Raven wasn't switched with you, Raven isn't an Obscuris."

"Uh actually Apple, I think I was." Raven stated awkwardly raising her hand into the air.

"What?" Apple asked looking conflicted.

"I got Duchess's bird knack when we switched, that much became painfully obvious as soon as the dust settled and I was suddenly smaller then all of my clothes. I had just assumed Duchess wound up in a mirror somewhere." Raven explained shrinking under Duchess's glare.

"You assumed!? Well as long as it just an assumption! After all who would ever argue with the great all knowing Raven Queen!" Duchess snapped again but quickly backed away when she heard a familiar growling coming from the furniture off to her side, Nevermore hunched over Raven's cauldron with a murderous glare in her eyes.

"Nevermore, Apple, that's enough." Both individuals turned to look at Raven like she had three heads. "I understand that you're trying to help me. But this is my fault, and I do wish to fix it."

"Raven, I didn't..."

"Apple... I need to talk to her." Raven stated and Apple let Raven stand in front of her.

"Oh believe me, you will." Duchess stated leveling a glare at Raven.

"We need to get you to the doctor's office Duchess." Raven stated a sad and desperate look on her features. "Please? For both of us?"

* * *

Soon both Duchess and Raven were down at the doctor's office, joining them, and glaring contemptuously from the top of Raven's cauldron which she personally dragged there, was Nevermore.

"Our curse detector was broken when the rock dropped, we might have to do this the old fashion way." Cat-Eye stated scratching his chin.

"Curse Detector? I'm already cursed! Or did you think that constantly turning into a swan was a good thing!?" Duchess snapped glaring hotly. "You are imparted with a transformation spell Duchess." Raven stated as she sat next to Nevermore. "What we are here to do, is determine if there is any trace left of the Obscuris or the Jabberwocky's Riddlish in our bodies."

"If the riddlish was in our bodies then wouldn't it be a blessing and not a curse?" Duchess asked cocking a brow suspiciously.

"Riddlish does one of two things: it either switches things around, or it throws them in reverse. You on the other hand turn into a bird, now what is the opposite of turning into a bird?" To Raven's question Duchess appear to ponder the subject for a bit.

"Fair point." Duchess stated rolling her eyes. "But then if the two of us are back to normal why are we here getting checked out."

"I'm not back to normal." Raven explained smiling bitterly. "My rate of magical recharge has gone way down. And while this probably means I won't be blowing my top again for a while, it concerns me because it might mean that something inside of me isn't working right, or it means that now I'm working right, but that I wasn't before."

"Your mother put so many unknown factors into you that we still can't figure them out." As Thief-Hand explained, she was holding onto a large fiery white shield with a pair of tongues. "And it wouldn't surprise me if this has anything to do with it."

"What in godmother's name is that?" Duchess asked every instinct in her body giving out danger senses.

"That is the Obscuris that was rampaging inside of your bodies." Thief Hand explained while the shield melted out of the tongs in her hand.

"What happened to it?" Duchess asked fearfully pulling her legs up to keep them away from it.

"That witch used the Jabberwocky's Riddlish magic to pluck it it out of you two." Thief hand made a frustrated noise as the shield suddenly ate through the floor falling below in the process. "After that, she trapped it in this thing which threw it in reverse thanks to the riddlish magic she used to rip it out. The end result, as I'm sure you two can tell, is obvious. Now if you excuse me." Thief hand stated as she resumed her chase for the shield with a long suffering sigh.

"By 'obvious' what my sister means is that instead of cursing whatever it comes into contact with to death, it instead purifies it to death." Swine-Heart stated making a point to step over the hole that still glowed ominously with light.

"Purifying to death? What does that mean! I thought Riddlish was suppose to do the opposite of what something normally does?" Duchess asked eyeing the hole fearfully.

"The opposite of fire is ice, you'll still die from a sufficient amount of both." Cat-Eye intoned sagely.

"If I may." Raven turned to face Duchess as she offered her own explanation.

"Pure means more than one thing. There's 'pure good' and 'pure evil.' In the same way that the Obscuris curses whatever it comes into contact with to death, this..." Raven looked to the ceiling for moment before making a _aha!_ face. "Purificus won't discriminate in what it purifies out of existence."

"In any case you mentioned that you haven't been able to produce as much magic as usual?" Cat-Eye asked cocking a brow suspiciously at Raven.

"Aha." Raven stated dreading the use of another of the Mad doctor's mad machines on her. True to predictions, what looked suspiciously like a sword with a voltage meter attached to it was rolled in by Swine-Heart.

"Please grab the Handle and sink as much magical power as you can into it." As instructed, Raven grabbed the handle and sunk as much raw power as she could into it. Soon a static like sound echoed as the voltage meter came to life, hovering over the area in the middle for a while, before Raven started to pant and the crackling died.

"So... how did I do?" Raven asked between pants.

"Above average for your peer group, though I find that I have my doubts that you are the same person who summoned that Djinn single handed." Cat-Eye stated as he tapped his chin.

"Brother, I think you are missing the obvious answer here." Swine-Heart stated, pointing to the hole in the floor which still glowed with a ominous light.

"Oh... That would explain it." Cat-Eye stated with sudden realization.

Even though the Obscuris was ultimately a bad thing, it was a powerful bad thing, one that generated absurd amounts of power from negative emotions.

"In other words, that Obscuris is the source of your ridiculous magical powers, and with out you're gonna be a lot weaker." Duchess stated with a odd look of satisfaction on her features.

"Yes that's one way to look at it." Raven rolling her eyes.

"But how can one be host to a Obscuris without showing any outward symptoms?" Swine-Heart stated scratching his chin.

"Perhaps it has to do with one or more of her other abnormalities?" Cat-Eye suggested hand on his chin.

"They're useless like this, we should leave before they bring out the sharp things." Raven stated to Duchess completely Ignoring the three who had gone off into their own world about their experiments.

"Agreed. I'm no one's Guinea pig." Duchess stated before walking out of the Doctor's office, soon followed by the familiar screech of the Cauldron Nevermore was dragging along the ground. "Why is she carrying that thing around everywhere she goes?"

"Here I can show you, but don't tell anyone." Raven opened the Cauldron, to the minor protests of Nevermore, and Duchess looked inside, shocked by the appearance of a few dozen very large eggs, lit by magical light being produced by the Cauldron itself exposing the undeveloped embryos inside.

"Dra..." Raven sharply cut Duchess off with her hand around her mouth, and used the other one to make a gesture of lowering her voice, Duchess nodded her head in agreement. "Dragon eggs! Sweet Fairy God Mother are you kidding me!" Duchess whispered loudly in shock.

"Yes. So keep your voice down, I'm trying to do this in a way that won't spread panic all over the school!" Raven snapped a serious look on her face. "Everyone's scare of Nevermore enough without there being two dozen more of her running around campus!" Raven snapped, before getting the ominous feeling of being watched.

Raven turned her head to the side to see Thief-Hand, tongs in hand and glowing shield in tongs, before that is it melted through again. Not that the doctor noticed, too busy staring wide eyed at what she just heard.

* * *

"Uggh!" Dexter was hanging upside down unconscious, based on all of the trees around him he was somewhere in the forest, Mira was hunched over a stone circle a little way away from him. "Mira? Why am I-?" A knife whisked past Dexter's head knocking his glasses off of his face.

"Don't you talk!" Mira immediately rushed up to Dexter, even with his appalling vision he could tell Mira had another knife in hand and a mad look on her features. "I know why you're here! Trying to get us back at that village wasn't enough now you've come here to finish the job!"

"You're cursed aren't you?" Dexter asked a long suffering look on his face.

"Aha! You would think that wouldn't you! You're kind think of all of us as being cursed don't you!" Mira snapped laughing in amusement and confirming Dexter's theory.

"Mira I'm not trying to hurt you." Dexter stated in a gentle voice. "That's what you want me to think! But now that the Riddlish is out of the area I can use the Mirror network to escape with this!" Mira stated thrusting the bottle with the Djinn inside of it forward.

Immediately the gears in Dexter's mind whirled and he concluded that since the Jabberwocky and it's damned Riddlish was gone his own Knack should be working properly again. At once Dexter swung himself forward and used his mouth to pluck Mira's glasses off of her face. Now without his or Mira's glasses to obstruct his power Dexter locked eyes with Mira and one flash of light later she was out cold on the ground.

"Well... time for part two I guess." Dexter swung himself over to the tree with a knife in it and with some effort succeeded in grabbing it in his teeth. With great difficulty Dexter used the knife to cut the rope around his chest, then using his now free hands he had a much easier time cutting rope around his feet that he was hanging from and landed on the ground with a thud. Dexter picked up his glasses that were knicked by the knife earlier and put them on. Then Dexter tied Mira up with the ropes he cut earlier and pocketed the Genie bottle. "Because this'll help my reputation lots." Dexter stated as he picked up the bound and gagged young lady and slung her over his shoulder.

* * *

"So your name is Brooke?" Maddie had asked while she sat in the break room of the Haberdashery and drank her favorite blend of tea, now that she could get the ingredients from Wonderland Grove as it was being called. "Why do you do that? Talk about whatever people are doing?" Maddie asked cocking a interested brow. "So you're not gonna answer me are yah? At least when I had the position I went back and talked to people more." Maddie asked, neither understanding nor caring about the responsibilities of those in the position of Narrator to record and not interfere in the day to day lives of people on her plain of existence. "Ah, what a pity." Maddie stated in a not at all apologetic tone of voice. "Still, you did seem to enjoy hanging out with the mad former Witch Queen." Maddie stated much to the frustration of her unwilling conversation partner.

"Sorry to interrupt your chat with your new friend." Kitty stated appearing before Maddie and speaking in a knowing tone of voice. "But I could use a little extra help with something. Could you come with me?"

"Is this about the old man under the school?" Maddie asked abusing her former Narrator privileges to their limit.

"Yep." Kitty stated fully aware of the power once bestowed upon Maddie.

* * *

 **Author's Note** :

DJ: That would be very cute, But Nevermore would never let them leave the nest.

Wade: It only took him a minuet to process it, mostly because he didn't expect to find it. And yah she could, for like one chapter.

Charlie: From the start I planned on the Jabberwocky leading into Wonderland, a part of a bigger whole if you will.


	42. Chapter 42

**Author's Note** : Sorry this took longer then I expected, but I'm having a bit of a rough couple of days and that's going to lead into a rough couple of weeks. So Read, Review, Favorite and Enjoy!

 **Amended Author's Note** : Sorry about that, I was trying to correct a typo in this chapter and instead I posted the other one before it was ready.

* * *

Chapter 42: It is Time for A Break Ever After High

Blondie was getting ready to report on the chaos that was happening in the school, Humphry was in the middle of trying to use a mirror pad while maneuvering the microphone for Blondie, but since the Riddlish had lost it's effect he had returned to his normal frailty. That is what he had claimed, and yet Dexter into the heart of that hell hole inside of the school with that Obscuris trapped inside, a dangerous creature even for someone who wasn't one great fall away from breaking every bone in their body. But last anyone had heard of him he and Mira had gone into the woods to try and get the Genie to Raven and the others to punt the Jabberwocky off to Wonderland. Well, now the Jabberwocky was gone, but neither Dexter, Mira or the massive concentration of sentient magical power was anywhere to be found.

"Humphry, can you call Dexter again?" Mira asked cocking a brow at Humphry.

"Wouldn't do you any good." Dexter stated emerging from the forest. "My phone broke when I got knocked out the second story window of the school." Much like his ribs, which hurt like his head and the rest of him, if there was any benefit from getting smacked around by Nevermore day in and day out he was use to having to move around while in agony, that and the good health charm Raven made for him probably helped some.

"Dexter are you okay wha..." Blondie's eyes were immediately drawn to the bound and gagged Mira slung over Dexter's shoulder. "Why is Mira tied up like that?"

"Because she got cursed by the Obscuris and it messed her up in the head. Now can someone else carry her before someone comes over here and accuse me of something untoward?" Dexter asked putting Mira down in Blondie's seat.

* * *

"A pleasure to meet your acquaintance talker of rhymes and brother of dogs." Maddie stated bowing in a overly dramatic manner with her hat in her hand.

"Think nothing of it daughter of hats and tea kettles." Giles replied waving his hand in front of him.

"As pleasing as it is to find one who speaks tongue tied do you know how to break the rope that binds you?" Maddie asked as she plucked her teapot out of her hat.

"The rope does not need to be cut but put back together, the pieces scattered in the ancient book of binding stories." Giles explained realizing that neither of the girls would know what he means.

"Oh so we just need to look in the Story Book of Legends for the pieces then! That should be no problem!" Maddie stated a happy smile on her face.

"Does the Big Bad Wolf Meow?" Giles asked a sad look on his features.

The Answer to his question by the way, is no.

"We figured that. So what do we have to do?" Maddie asked cocking a brow suspiciously at Giles.

"What I require is not book markers on pages but rather pages within stories." Giles did his best to explain but the Riddlish was making it difficult for him.

"If it was something as simple as something within the book of Legends then the Head Master could have broken this spell years ago no?" Maddie stated prompting Kitty and Giles to nod their heads in agreement. "If that's the case then what we need is something that is much more difficult to access."

"Or something on a time limit." Kitty pointed out raising her finger in the air.

"So what is it then?" Maddie asked looking at Giles.

"My thanks till the hour glass is broken all over the floor ladies but what you seek is at the heart of the dragon's den." By which Giles meant that it was extremely dangerous, not that it was actually located inside of the den of a dragon.

"So much for asking Raven for help." Kitty stated having immediately connecting together Raven and Dragon and naturally concluding that Giles meant for them to talk to her.

"It will seem that we will have to do extensive research on the Book of Legends as well." Maddie stated letting out a sigh, now who did they know who could process large amounts of information at abnormally high rates.

""APPLE!"" Both of the Wonderlander girls concluded at the same time.

* * *

Speaking of whom, Apple was currently stuffing her belongings back into her travel trunk with a fair amount of reluctance. The Headmaster made a announcement a while ago, given the recent string of harrowing events the school board had concluded that the students could use some R&R for a few days. Her mother the current Snow White called a while ago and told her that with the discovery and subsequent destruction of the school's supply of curse magical artifacts school was being suspended until a proper investigation/reconstruction could be completed. For Apple, she felt a immense amount of frustration, feeling like she just got Raven back only yesterday and now she would be lost to her again. Time enough for another mad man to swoop in and try and kill her again, and with her Magic having suddenly knocked out she came to the terrifying conclusion that this time they might actually succeed, if not the time after that, and the time after that. It was a terrifying thought for Apple, the last time someone tried to kill her was not too long ago, and the time before that was just a week or two, and that was with the security measures of Ever After high warding them off. The laughable security measures that a teenage witch managed to outwit and vastly improve upon in the span of a couple of days. Did Ever After High even have any security measures for so many different royal students, the only ones that she ever heard about were the ones that she would see Mira putting up in the Girl's dormitory? For that matter, did this school even have a single class that benefited Raven in the slightest? Why in God Mother's name did Raven even bother to come here in the first place? All these thoughts and more were going through Apple's mind while she thought about this.

"My my, sounds like you have a lot weighing on your mind Princess." Kitty stated smirking knowingly as she appeared beside Apple.

"So the Narrator is in my head is he? Tell me are there thoughts that are my own at least?" Apple asked casting Kitty a downward thought.

"Narrator's aren't Omniscent Apple, they can only pick up on the important details." Kitty stated giving a dismissive shrug of her shoulders.

"So, my thoughts are safe as long as they're boring?" Apple asked cocking a brow suspiciously at Kitty.

"Oh hardly, Narrators go out of their way to avoid the most interesting of thoughts." Kitty stated waving her hand playfully.

"What kind of interesting thoughts?" Apple asked both curious and dreading any secret that Kitty might tell her. Indeed Kitty soon appeared at Apple's side and whispered something into Apple's ears which based on the shade of deep red that her face lit in was not appropriate for a T Rated story. "I can see why they wouldn't want to pry into your mind." Apple stated embarrassed.

"All depends upon what they're doing, some people find what I have to say fascinating." Kitty stated wagging her brows knowingly.

"Kitty, are you here just to torment me or is there something that you actually want?" Apple asked making a deep sigh while trying to push the images Kitty put in her mind out.

"For starters I want to offer you my sincere help with your problem concerning our little black birdie." Kitty stated shrugging her shoulders before crossing her legs and donning a look of all business. "I require someone who can comb through the school's archieves for all the information relating to the Story Book of Legends for anything relating to a very specific curse."

"I don't have time to help you with your mad schemes Kitty." Apple stated going back to her packing.

"I was afraid of that." At once Kitty picked Apple up in a princess carry and suddenly the entire room changed, it was roughly a fifth of the size it was before, and it had become much darker as well.

"What's going on here!?" Apple screeched kicking and screaming trying to get out of Kitty's grasp.

"Wow you're heavier then you look!" At once Apple found herself back in the actual science lab, though perhaps not so mysteriously she still found herself five feet off the ground, but soon she was zooming down the hallways at two hundred and forty miles per hour and all the way to the library before she was put down.

"Who...? What...!?" Apple stated looking around confused at the change in scenery and how it came to happen.

"Raven never explained my knack to you did she?" Kitty asked now visible again.

"It's teleportation right?" Apple stated though now that she was talking she realized that she would have arrived here instantly instead of taking that terrifying trip through the hallways.

"It's dimensional shifting, specifically to the dark matter dimension but I'm not really into the sci-ency part of it." Kitty stated waving Apple's concerns off.

"Try." Apple stated wanting know about whatever she just went through in full.

"Basically..." Kitty grumbled with a annoyed tone of voice. "Dark Matter makes up about about a fifth of the matter in the universe, but it all exists in another dimension, so everything over there is a fourth the size of everything over here. So when I grab something over there it only weighs a fourth of what it would over here, likewise I only have a fourth of the way to travel too."

"And you can turn invisible while you do it too." Apple stated letting out a sigh. "Well someone got the pot luck of knacks."

"The person able to make a legion of vicious snarling super predators with a whole host of magical powers beg roll over and heel has no right to say that." Kitty stated after finding the book that she was looking for earlier. "Aha! Here we go!" Kitty found the book that she was looking for the first time she did her book report and promptly yanked it out. Apple looked even more annoyed then what she did before.

"Kitty, did you bring me here to get me to do your book report, on that criminally short book I might add, for you?" Apple asked in a suspicious tone of voice.

"This worked the last..." Suddenly both girls found that their the floor had given out from underneath them sending them both plummeting downwards, sliding down a set of stairs and landing on a stuffy old mattress.

"Kitty Dear." Maddie stated looking down at Kitty with a smirk on her face. "Was it the tiny little book that you pulled, or was it the much larger obscure medical text on various different forms of troll foot fungus that it was wedged in next to?" In other words, when one wanted to hide a secret passage way via book, one goes with the frankly disgusting text that no one would ever want to read.

"Point taken." Kitty stated pulling herself up and brushing dirt and dust off of herself.

"Kitty! Maddie! Why did you two bring me here!?" Apple stated her patience worn thin by being man handled at over two hundred miles per hour.

"We thought you might feel more inclined to help us if you knew what we were trying to do." Maddie stated, stepping aside to reveal Giles who was still at his desk.

* * *

Mrs. Yaga was escorting Raven through the magical forest towards the lake located there in, Raven had already packed a trunk and Nevermore was carrying the cauldron full of dragon eggs.

"Are you going to be okay like this?" Mrs. Yaga asked looking over the lake, a ship had been deposited there, though it might be stuck there soon enough based on all of the falling orange, red and yellow leaves that were cluttering up the surface of the lake. Granted, this was not any normal ship, in fact it was actually more closely related to Mrs. Yaga's Shack, a combination of the flesh of extremely large creatures, specifically the legs, fins and long crocodile like tail of a leviathan, Elder Berry wood from the fairy forest similar to that used in Cedar's body. In this case however it also possessed one of the powerful glamour charms that Morgan was so fond of as well, able to change it's form to a more compact shape, in fact it was in the form of a shield that Tom who was standing by the moored ship had dropped it off in.

"Tom, how is the Prydwen today?" Raven asked looking at the ship in question.

"There are some minor concerns I would like to bring up." Tom stated one finger pointed into the air, Raven sucked in a deep breath knowing that it was too good to be true.

"Alright. Hit me." Raven stated in a some what dejected tone of voice.

"As you know, the Prydwen was made from sentient trees and the pieces of a leviathan that your mother was responsible for, _ahem_ , removing before gluing together using a combination of Necromancy and Chimera Magics. Much like in case of Pinocchio, the wood retains elements of the person who carved it, your mother, the Leviathan, a unruly beast even before your mother took to... Parting it out to the navy, plus a tiny bit of spite which typifies the undead or partially undead. In short, it can be a wee bit aggressive at times." Having voiced all of his concerns and seeing no movement from the ship Tom continued on, Raven and Nevermore following behind onto the ship itself. "The ship is loaded with your mother's protective charms, all of the hinges are hinges of Cardea numbering twenty seven in total, ensuring the maximum possible density of magical barriers, more magic barriers were carved into the hull of the ship adding to the protection. It is equipped with several magical cannons using magic staffs designed to fire the highly unpleasant spells and curses that your your mother patented." Walking into the relatively small captains cabin, Raven was soon greeted by a huge room that was closer to the great hall of a mansion. "Your mother made use of a spacial compression spell to afford a certain amount of space in the ships that she built. Most of them are meant to be Barracks and military vessels, hence her deliberate efforts to make them as unpleasant as possible. This one on the other hand was created as your parents personal Honeymoon suite after their marriage. I recommend that you stay in one of the guest rooms personally, thoughts linger well on ships such as these, I'll leave it at that." As Tom explained that he went over to a trap door and pulled it open, revealing lake water below. "As per your family's agreement with the school board, you'll be sharing use of the Prydwen with the incoming transfer student from the Kingdom of Atlantis." Raven remembered, the Mermaid in question, the Next little Mermaid, was suppose to take her old room while she was on the disabled list, because as a Mermaid she lacked legs. However that persons family had been stalling for a long time on the grounds that a building on land was a ill suited environment for a Mermaid to sleep and live in. Well now she had no excuse and the School would have it's current Gen Little Mermaid. "Moving on, the main subject of interest is the heart of the ship." Tom opened a closet door to reveal a huge glowing mass of bright red wood, but wrapped around that was the familiar tentacles leading into a Zeugi. "One of your mother's highly prolific magical generators, we intend to attach it to the school's septic systems and have it skim off of the lake bed as well." Closing the hatch, Tom's gaze landed on the cauldron Nevermore had brought aboard. "By the way, should we tell your grandmother about... that?" Tom asked gesturing to the dragon who was carrying around a cauldron with her.

"Yes, please inform her that currently I'm keeping the eggs at the ideal sweet spot for developing female dragons, in addition I'm using Ginger's cauldron to continuously infuse the eggs with buffing spells." Raven explained smirking knowingly.

"It sounds like some of those beasts on Dragon Mountain are going to be very happy."

Dragon mountain was a nature reserve dedicated to singularly to different species of Dragons, the last time that Raven was there was during mating season, the males nearly tore the mountainside apart competing for mates and her mother had to subjugate them herself. Two dozen females should help to placate them and prolong the life span of the mountain, and with Raven imbuing the eggs with her magic it will be a case of the female dragons building a seraglios, male harem, of prospective mates, which when you consider that they probably out number them ten to one is saying something. Raven also hoped that this methodology might be adopted by the other dragons, it would be a huge boon for their homeland if dragons could become more plentiful, but it would probably upset the ecosystem suddenly having all of those super predators around. Perhaps they could be brought to other parts of the world. That was another problem Raven was faced with right now, Thanks to those doctors and their big mouths everyone knew about the dragon eggs now with people already lining up about trying to get a baby dragon of their own. There seemed to be this odd romanticized fantasy about riding into battle on them, in spite of the fact that Raven repeatedly pointed out that they wouldn't be old enough to actually ride around on until they entered their teenage years, unless of course you employed illegal and extremely dangerous growth potions on them.

"You've gotten us into a lot of trouble yah know that right?" Raven asked looking directly at her dragon.

Nevermore in turn gave the impression of a eye roll as she went somewhere to hide her nest.

* * *

 **Review Section** :

Zwei Eis: Hmm. Been a While since I saw you lurking about here, good to hear from you anyway.

DJ: It's a part of my end game, for now though it's not going to be relevant since I don't plan on her being a big part of the next few chapters.

Charlie: Unfortunately yes, my way of not using her as a story crutch anymore, as well as taking her off of the front lines. Mira is going to need a little time off after all of this.

Wade: Or maybe she can get something that'll work in it's place. HMM? Yah, I'm kinda trying to set up Raven and Mira right now.

ChimaTigon: Thank you for pointing that out, I was in a bad state this morning so I wasn't thinking right, the matter has been corrected and if you want you can read the chapter the way it was intended next week.


	43. Chapter 43

**Author's Note** : Hello my people, you might have heard over the week that I've been feeling down do to the loss of a love one, well I've found someone new, does that change the fact that there is a sizable hole in my heart? No. But it has begun to patch and heal the wound. So Read, Review, Favorite and Enjoy!

* * *

Chapter 43: Time for some Work, Ever After High

It was a woeful day in Wonderland, made all the more woeful because it was meant to be a occasion filled with so much joy, simply put, it was the Queen of Hearts birthday, and she was depressed because her daughter, Lizzie Hearts couldn't be in attendance. And she was making everyone else depressed as well, where once happy music filled the air on days passed there was now only a somber funeral like music being played, a large number of gifts laid abandoned off to her side, each one of them opened, each one of them having failed to lift the spirits of the Queen of Hearts one tiny Iota. It was like this for many years now, and everyone knew the cause. The Queen's gaze lift off to the far off horizon every other moment, where a dark mass of clouds stormed angrily occasionally producing the face of a roaring demon and bolts of lightning struck down with furious blows. This massive curse that had cut Wonderland off from the rest of the realms, to be frank it wasn't like it was necessarily a bad thing for them once the panic had settled down. For decades now Wonderland had looked for a way to convince the stupid nobles of Ever After to stop coming here, stop trying to claim their lands, stop sending comparatively innocent people out into the wilderness to be killed/maimed beyond recognition. Then one day unexpectedly that was exactly what happened, a huge death cloud killing anything that it came into contact with appeared in Wonderland and killed anything that it came into contact with and then suddenly stopped expanding once the quarantine went up. Now no one could invade nor would want to upon the impending threat of instant Death. And all that it cost them was over half of their people either dying or being trapped on the other side of the quarantine. It was because the Queen of Hearts was looking up at the sky at the time that she saw the figure that appeared in it, flapping it's wings as it soared through the sky.

"Jabberwocky..." As the beast grew closer, it became readily apparent exactly what they were dealing with. "JABBERWOCKY!"

To the Queen's shouting, the other soldiers looked into the sky and indeed saw the beast flying through the air. Numerous cross bow bolts, enchanted so that not even the twisting turning power of the Jabberwocky could throw them off, sailed through the air on a collision course with the Jabberwocky, but they missed, the Jabberwocky had suddenly taken a sharp turn down. Naturally the soldiers reloaded their weapons and prepared to fire again once the beast straightened out it's course, only it didn't. To be more accurate, it landed deftly on the ground at the back of the lineup of party guests waiting to give their gifts. Naturally, in birthday's past the Queen of Hearts was not oppose to the appearance of uninvited guests, she herself had once declared that she would take the Jabberwocky as the guest of honor so long as it had brought her a great gift. Exercising a bare minimum of politeness, the Queen walked outside of the castle, much to the exasperation of the soldiers, and walked up to the back of the line where the Jabberwocky had parked itself.

"This had better be good, I am in a exceptionally foul mood today." The Queen of Hearts stated tapping her finger viciously on one of her arms.

Answering the Queen's question, the Jabberwocky leaned down and stuck out it's tongue revealing two letters in a water proofed bag. Said bag was see through, revealing the one who had signed the both of them. Immediately, the Queen recognized her daughter's hand writing, even though her name was on only one of them, but the other simply stated 'Raven.' Revealing a exceptionally sharp letter opener hidden in her sleeve, the Queen opened her daughter's letter.

" _Dear beloved giver of my life._

 _Should the gecko have followed his instructions accurately, then you should be receiving this letter by the time of your thirty eighth birthday, disclosed within and with in the letter of the black bird, is a noticed that my white Lagomorph, after having fled our beloved homeland during the cursing, opened a portal directly upon a pool of magical power which has caused it to remain open in spite of the quarantine which now divides us. This Jabberwocky, who fled back home in the form of a rat, should he have followed the orders he has been assigned, is to take you and a contingent of your forces, back to the portal in question. There you will be able to talk with the black bird about removing the plague which hangs over our skies put there by her mother._

 _With our name sake, your spawn Lizzie Hearts._ "

Droplets of moisture ran down the sides of the Queen of Hearts face. Tears, it was not a unfamiliar sight to the men, the Queen of Hearts had for some time now taken to crying herself to sleep whenever something appeared that reminded her of her daughter, which when you consider that this was the castle where Lizzie had been born and raised for nearly a decade, was a very common occurrence. However unlike in those cases they were not tears of sadness or sorrow, but rather pure, uncompromising joy.

"Take me to my daughter at once hand bag!" The Queen of Hearts demanded in a steel clad tone, much to the shock of the guards who had to take a step back.

"Your Majesty, we cannot allow you to go with this beast alone!" One of the braver of the guards said sneaking up behind the Queen of Hearts.

"Fine, take them too!" To the Queen's demands the Jabberwocky scooped up the card guards in one of it's clawed paws and bent over allowing the Queen of Hearts to climb on the back of it's neck before the lot of them took off into the air with a powerful thrust.

* * *

The Carpenter was hard at work in the woods. He could do nothing to expand the pre-existing portal leading into Wonderland, but there was a way to make the things that went through it smaller. Wonderland was famous for it's Eat Me Cookies and Drink Me Lemonade, which made it possible to shrink down or grow as needed. Using the properties of those, and of riddlish itself which swapped certain parts of things around, and combining them with his own knack that put together buildings and other constructs the same way most people made sandwiches, and John Carpenter successfully built the Wonderland Well.

"Well that's this side done, now to get the other one done too." John wiped the sweat off of his brow and stood up to stretch back out, he went to the table that Maddie had set up some time ago and began eating some of her cakes and drinking some of the tea she had made for him.

"So with this, we can go to Wonderland again?" Maddie asked a eager look on her face.

"We can go, but we can't get back till the one on the other side is built too." John explained before he gulped down more of the tea. "Well then lets go!" Maddie at once jumped through the air and curled into a Cannon ball over the well. "YIPPPEEE-Ouph!" Only to caught by Lizzie before she could enter the well itself.

"And if a family of Jabberwocky's should be on the other side?" Lizzie asked a serious questioning look on her face.

"What you want me to get Raven's dragon to beat the stuffing out of them like last time?" Maddie asked giving Lizzie a serious questioning look.

"Do not mistake that in doors type for a true Jabberwocky, it's body grew thin and withered from being trapped inside of that vault for nearly a decade without food or exercise." Lizzie dropped the disheartened Maddie on her rear end now that she was confident she wouldn't be doing anything reckless. "You would be out of shape too."

"So what are we doing now?" Maddie asked looking at Lizzie suspiciously.

"We wait for my mother, to open the way back to Wonderland for us." Lizzie stated crossing her arms and huffing seriously.

"LIZZIE!" At that moment, everyone present heard a loud scream of joy coming from the well, more specifically from the cup and string like communication that was attached to what looked like a grappling hook that had had appeared from it. "OH MY BELOVED DAUGHTER ITS SO GOOD TO HEAR YOUR VOICE AGAIN!"

"Speaking of..." Lizzie stated a bit of a smirk on her face.

* * *

"So you lost a leg." A young lady, whom it should be noted was in a wheel chair, whom it should also be noted had a long pink tail swishing back and forth. "Got attacked by dwarfen hit men, twice, nearly got killed by a mirror, and turned into a bird by a dragon?"

"And that was just since coming to this school. Even then the second dwarf team only attacked me on that one time I stepped outside of the school, overall it's way better then before coming here." Raven explained as she got a fruit salad ready to eat.

"Where were you living that was worst then this?" The Mermaid asked a horrified look on her face.

"Ah let's see here... there was that time Maddie tried to kill me, that troll that ripped both of my arms off, that time someone tried to..."

"I get it your horrifying!" The Mermaid stated waving her hands around in front of her in fear. "Let's try this again. I'm Meeshell nice to meet you." The Mermaid in question stated sticking out her hand to shake with Raven's.

"I'm Raven nice to meet you." Raven stated holding out her other hand. "So since we apparently can't talk about me, what's been keeping you? I mean it's been over a month since school started and you're only getting here now, so what's the hold up?"

"Oh you know the usual, hostages, ransom, take over the world types." Meeshell stated waving her hand off.

"No actually I don't, they usually just rant and rave about why I'm evil and deserve to die and then try and kill me." Raven commented shrugging her shoulders.

* * *

"So you want me to come with you to Wonderland?" Darling asked looking at Lizzie seriously. "If you're trying to take down the curse that Raven's mom put up, then shouldn't you be bringing Raven along?"

"Nothing would bring me more pleasure." Lizzie stated in a obvious tone of voice. "But it is dangerous over there, and Raven's lost her power, so if we botch this by throwing our eggs into one basket, then we're screwed."

"That does sound like a bad thing, and if it's stealth and infiltration then Sparrow should be the one you're talking about, but Dexter already dragged him and Briar into something." Darling let out a sigh. "Alright fine. I'm in." Lizzie gave Darling a hug before she sat down. "Besides, working as your knight is a lot more appealing then getting set up as a princess for Hopper. Did you talk to Maddie and Kitty though? This sounds like the kind of thing that they would be into."

* * *

"So it's on a timer then?" Apple had recruited Blondie, a investigative reporter, and Briar, the girl with unparalleled studying skills, in order to come through the school's history and the history of the story book of legends, in order to find a way to un-curse the Headmaster's brother, and this is what they found.

"Yes and no, apparently this place use to be the old vault for cursed magical artifacts back before the school was a school and instead a fort..." Briar suddenly slammed her face into the desk, the sound of snoring coming from her indicated why. Wordlessly Apple slammed her fist into the desk waking Briar back up. "...ress." Briar only now noticed the sheet of paper stuck on her face and removed it unamused. "One day the place suddenly exploded though, and every year on the same day since it would reappear for one day before disappearing again. Since it was so special the place was converted into a sort of... legacy storehouse if you will. Our par..." Briar once again slammed her face into the desk snoring, and once more Apple banged her fist against it waking her up. "...rents leave gifts for us inside supposedly to help us with our stories. But there is also something that can't be removed, a connection to the Story Book Legends, some people think that one was the one that broke it."

"Good to know, but how does that help us?" Blondie asked scratching the side of her head. "I mean, tearing up the curse and putting it into the Book makes me think that it was like book marks, but if that's not the case then we should think of it differently." Suddenly, as if getting a idea, Apple plucked out her mirror phone and dialed the first number on her speed dial. "Hey Raven it's me. Do you know of any spells that let people go inside of a book?" Apple waited a few moments as she waited for a answer. "A magical book? Like say for example the Story Book of Legends..." Apple's face cringed up, having been immediately seen through. "No... why would you think that? Of course I'm not planning anything like that. Okay bye!" Apple had a guilty look on her face as she turned to face the others. "Well I'm fairly certain I'm right."

"And how can you be so sure?" Blondie asked looking at Apple suspiciously. As if answering Blondie's question Apple's phone started to ring again.

"Because Raven's trying to talk me out of it." Apple sighed as she pointed to her phone.

"Well it says here that the place won't be appearing for a while yet." Briar stated looking at the book. "You can't dodge her for..." For a third time, Briar slammed her face into her desk having fallen asleep for the third time in a row.

"I know Briar, I know." Apple stated letting out deep sigh.

* * *

"Sparrow, it's not that I doubt your expertise or anything." Dexter stated while he watched Sparrow stuff his duffel bag full of a large number of items, including magnets, rope, and various potions on top of his bow and arrows.

"But that's exactly what cha doing isn't it?" Sparrow asked while he put the finishing touches on his bag.

"Unfortunately, yes." Dexter stated looking at Sparrow suspiciously.

"Well all I can say to that is quid pro quo. So now I get to ask why you're so sure about this place." Sparrow asked shrugging his shoulders.

"The mad men who attacked Mira's camp were chased out of that area by Raven's father in a effort to find the rest of them. That failed, they are either far too smart or far to afraid of their employers to lead them back to them, instead they set up their base of operations in this castle." Dexter stated pointing to one of the castles on the map. "They've been content to let them make a living for themselves for a while, but they've been holding out on the supplies they've stolen and or have been scrounging up from the surrounding area. But if we want closure for Mira, we need to put these guys in their place." Dexter stated scratching his chin.

"And why would I want to do that? Mira fed me to her psycho mirror mother." Sparrow asked crossing his arms with a look of smug satisfaction.

"Because said Psycho Mirror Mother is now our chem-myth-ry and by helping our friend, her daughter, she will owe you a favor." Dexter stated in a blunt knowing tone of voice.

* * *

 **Review Section** :

Zwei Eis: A review, even a weird review, is still preferable to no review at all.

DJ: Eh, plot focus chapters are important too. And for the record, dirty thoughts, of Raven's mother and father together on their honey moon that is not appropriate for a T-Rated story.

Charlie: That they do. It's peaceful but still busy, granted that will soon be changing.


	44. Chapter 44

**Author's Note** : Another Chapter clinched, and Also of note, the first one not to feature Raven, a trend that I will continue for a while to try and give some non magic characters a chance to shine. So speaking of which, Read, Review, Favorite and Enjoy!

* * *

Chapter 44: It's Your Time to Shine Robin Hood

This fortress dated back over three hundred years, back to the last major war to consume the continent, and it was built by the anti magic side. The building was mostly composed of stone, but the outside walls had been covered in iron plate armor, the only thing remotely magic resistant that they could put together at the time. There were several towers with cannons on top of them, meant for sniping out of the air flying targets such as Dragons and fairies, and also very effective against giants as well. Aside from that there were also numerous men patrolling along the tops of the walls and around the surrounding area making use of weapons that bore a loose resemblance to staffs, but they were holding them like cross bows instead. Dexter recalled that they were called 'Rifles' the basic concept of a cannon, a explosion contained in a metal tube for the purpose of punting off metal balls with great destructive force, but scaled down to the size of a cross bow, if Dexter's memory served they were Dwarf engineered, and could make for a considerable distance.

"Here's hoping you know what you're doing Sparrow." Dexter stated gulping audibly, from his position a couple miles away, while looking through a telescope.

* * *

Sparrow was wearing a Ghillie Mantle, a cloak made out of green fabric with various mosses and grasses attached to the back, enhanced with some magics. He was belly crawling along the ground, playing a game of red light green light with the watchmen, when they looked in his direction, he stopped, when they looked away, he resumed his trek and eventually made it all the way to the wall. Sparrow slipped out of the mantle revealing a make shift armor of aluminum foil. Granted, this armor wasn't meant to provide protection in the normal sense, rather it was meant to help him blend in with the chrome plating of the wall. Sparrow got two high powered magnets out of his bag and put them on his hands via the straps that were glued to the sides, together with the similar high powered magnets glued to the bottom of his boots Sparrow began climbing the wall. Of course they had accounted for the possibility of one of the guards patrolling there spotting Sparrow as he climbed the wall while lit up like a Christmas tree, which is the reason why they had arranged a nasty little surprise for them. Sparrow might not be getting top marks in his Chem-Myth-Ry class, but it had become a well known fact that the end result of putting him anywhere near a Chem-Myth-Ry set was a explosion. A lesser known fact however was the kinds of musks that companies liked to put into their male body sprays in fact tended to provoke a unwanted sort of attention from the animal kind, as confirmed by Ramona the one time Sparrow got some for his birthday. Now those two concoctions was on the edge of the forest in a clay pot, with a mirror phone ominously wired in. Pressing a button on Sparrow's own phone, the pot suddenly exploded with a loud pop sound spreading the foul smelling mist all over the area. Nothing happened for a few moment's, but eventually a familiar looking antler gorilla came lumbering out of the woods.

"Holy Crud! Fiend! We've got a Fiend!" One unfortunate soldier shouted before he was suddenly knocked to the side in one powerful blow by the hulking monster in question.

It wasn't in a good mood either, the musk that Sparrow put into that jar must have come from a male of unknown species and now the Fiend had been put into a frenzy. If it was a simple matter of putting the beast down then they could just use one of the cannons on the castle wall. However it was a well known fact that a powerful curse was placed on that beast that would transform it's killer, or in many cases killers, into a clone or clones of itself. In other words they had to incapacitate it.

"Quickly! Get the sleeping potions!" While the soldiers scrambled to deal with the Fiend that had suddenly appeared Sparrow climbed the walls unimpeded.

Sparrow's dufflebag landed first, followed by the man himself, he quickly made short work of the guard's, simply putting him in a choke hold that rendered him unconscious and threw him into a hay bail below him.

"Now if I was a dungeon, where would I...?" Sparrow took out a map from his bag and examined the area around him, he made a 'aha' noise as he spotted the air vent that led into the dungeon which made use of a magnetic dead lock to create a unpick-able vacuum seal leading into the dungeons, said vent was located underneath a large wagon full of hay. Of course, that one tiny vent was barely big enough to fit a goblin, and even if it was it's sealed off on both sides by a steel grate, in other words, Sparrow needed to somehow break through using brute force. "Alright, time to ruin someone's day!"

Sparrow made his way to the gate, but the looks of things all of the soldiers were already outside fighting off the Fiend. Good. Then all Sparrow had to do was trap them outside. Sparrow placed one of his potions in the gear of the gate, and set up a trip wire attached to it along the ground, when somebody tripped it, it would pull the cork off of the bottle and cause it to explode after it came into contact with the air, as Sparrow had learned many, many times, destroying the mechanism holding the gate up in the process. As if a after thought, Sparrow also place several orange vials into the holes in the ground where the gates spikes would enter the ground.

"Now than, on to the other problem." Sparrow found the grate he was looking for, and took a green vial from his bag. Evidently whenever one of Sparrow's potions didn't explode they found other ways of failing spectacularly, like creating a acid that ate through the floor of the Chem-Myth-Ry lab. Or in this case, the grate that provided air to the underground dungeon. Now that Sparrow had removed the pesky grate, he could do the next phase of the plan, which involved yet another clay pot. The explosion was loud enough that the soldiers heard it from all the way outside.

"Somebody is inside the Fortress!" Several of the soldiers broke away from the woozy Fiend and ran back to their fortress.

They were promptly welcomed back by a explosion at the gate, destroying the mechanism holding the gate open, taking out three of the soldiers, and trapping the rest of them outside of the fortress. Now the soldiers were panicking, ignoring what they were keeping inside of the fortress, they also still had the winches needed to drag the Fiend back into the forest inside as well, so when it woke back up, it would likely still try to kill them, and they had run out of ways of stopping him.

"Get that gate open now!" At once several of the soldiers ran over to pry the gate open with their own brute strength, but they soon realized that the orange foam like substance coming out of the ground had created a vacuum seal and glued the gates down. "Make a human tower! Get over the walls at all costs!" At once the various soldiers ran over to the wall, one stood right up next to it, another climbed onto his shoulders and stood up straight, others followed suit and soon several of the soldiers started to get over the wall. "Down there!" One of the soldiers pointed to one of the main doors leading into the main fortress, it had a explosion mark and was heavily damage, obviously the work of their intruder, and so they all immediately ran into the building to chase him down.

Sparrow got out of the hay bail and quietly closed the door behind them before blocking the door with a wagon in the courtyard. Sparrow also quickly barred the only other door with a dagger, and sealed the cracks around the door with more of the foam like potion.

"Hey! The Door's been sealed!"

"Don't worry, I'll send the authorities out to grab you loons!" Sparrow shouted in turn prompting people to begin beating on the door. Without the load of hay blocking it the vent was open to Sparrow, the explosion having gutted the inside of the vent widening it in the process enough that Sparrow could barely fit through. He took a spear out of his bag and tied the middle of the rope around it before tying the other end around him. Sparrow then jumped down the hole and was stopped from hitting the ground only by the rope around his waist. "Perfect!" Sparrow pulled down on the other end of the rope untying the part that was attached to the spear untying it in the process before he untied himself as well. The door leading out wasn't hard to find, so Sparrow sealed it with more of his orange goo so that he wouldn't get any unwanted people showing up. "Hello! Is there anyone down here?" Sparrow called out with both of his hands over his mouth.

"Over here!" A weak voice called out in turn. Sparrow ran over to the cell that noise was coming from and saw within a group of familiar looking little green men.

"Professor Rumpelstiltskin?" Sparrow asked looking confused at the little green men.

"We're goblins if that's what you mean." One of the goblins explained in a raspy tone of voice. Sparrow checked the other cells, no one else was here.

"Right. Well I'm gonna get you out of here now, preferably with any evidence of what these jerks been up to, so if you guys know anything about that then now's the time to tell me." Sparrow explained crouching down to the goblins level.

"They've been making us help them with their projects to try and kill Riordan's royal family. They made us make armor to protect their assassin's. They believed that if they could turn the family's vast magical power against them then they could over power them." One of the Goblins explained with a visible cringe.

"Oh yah I heard about that, didn't that guy get turned into a super undead or something?" Sparrow asked briefly looking up to the ceiling.

"To be more accurate he was turned into something similar to a mid tier undead, except that it's armor was given additional curses that put it somewhere closer to a high tier undead." The Goblin explained letting out a tired sigh. "Suffice to say, they weren't very happy with us." The Goblin held out his hands that had been bandaged with bits of burnt skin visible underneath. "After that they assigned us to a more infiltration type mission, we've been up for days producing glamour charms."

"Glamour charms? Like that one that our Chem teacher used to make herself invulnerable?" Sparrow asked with a horrified look on his face.

"Wha...?" The goblins had identical looks of horror on their faces. "I know not what kind of monster your school has employed but I assure you Glamour charms are not used like that normally." The goblin waved his hands around panicked in order to calm himself down before eventually breathing in precious air. "Glamour charms are meant to turn something, into something else. For example they can turn a group of heavily armed assassins..."

"Into a class of high school students." Sparrow stated slapping himself in his face. "Alright..." Sparrow popped a cork on another vial of acid and used it to melt the lock on the goblins cell. "Take me to em." Towards this end, the goblins pointed towards the solid bank vault like door that leads out of the dungeon into the main part of the fortress. Also it was in the same direction as what Sparrow knew he locked the thugs in. "Alright. We'll take the back way out." Sparrow went back to the rope and tied the goblins up in a bundle. "Easy does it." Sparrow maneuvered himself and sat on top of the bundle of Goblins. "Everyone good?" Sparrow received various muffled exclamations in the negative. "Good." Sparrow threw the other end of the rope into the air and looped it around the spear and started to hoist himself and the goblins up out of the hole, then he helped the goblins get out one by one.

"Hey! That punk kid is the one who locked us out here!"

"Quickly! He's freeing the goblins!" The soldiers outside had gathered around the gate and were trying to get back into their fortress.

"Blah, Blah, Blah. Why don't you find some little girl to burn at the stake while you wait to be dragged off to your executions or something!" Saying that, Sparrow pulled out another pot from his bag and threw it at the gate. A sound like a fart echoed as a ghastly smoke cloud enveloped the men at the gate who quickly choked into submission. "Now than. Getting into the main building." Luckily, only the outside walls had been Iron reinforced. Sparrow happily fired a arrow at a open window located at the top of the main building and easily anchored it five centimeters in solid stone. Then Sparrow took the other end of the rope, already tied to a arrow, and stabbed that into the ground, finally, he removed from his bag something that looks like a winch and attached it to the rope. "Okay, one of you come with me so that you can identify these glamour thingies." Sparrow wrapped his legs around the rope and held onto the winch with his hands so that he was now hanging under the makeshift zipline, with one of the goblins climbing onto his stomach. "Hang on tight!" Sparrow squeezed down on the winch and he rocketed through the air into the open window before stopping, right in the middle of where the knights had been trying to get out of the building. "Credit where it's do, you guys are persistent." Sparrow commented to the bewildered guards.

"""GET HIM!""" Sparrow took a knife out of his boot and slashed the rope, severing the zip line and with it the soldiers only safe way out of the building. The guard's dog piled on Sparrow all at once and soon had him by his arms.

"Well, I was hoping I wouldn't have to do this but..." Sparrow squeezed down on a ring he was wearing. Said ring had been enchanted with lightning magic by Mira, and the guards who were holding Sparrow along with Sparrow himself were all electrocuted and fell on the floor in a heap.

"Allow me!" The goblin held out his hand and soon almost all of the light in the room had been sucked away.

"Quick! Get your Dark Vision Helmets on!" The Goblin's efforts would not be very effective for long, all of the soldiers visors had magic built in that soaked up light and used that to enhance the vision of the wearer, making it easier to see in the dark. It was however effective for just long enough. Sparrow had grabbed another of his potion pots and smashed it against the wall holding his eyes close and plugging his ears as best as he could. The smashed pot produced a loud explosion and a lingering ball of light, enveloping all of the soldiers whose vision had been altered so that they could see in pitch darkness, simply put, they were blind.

"OORAH!" Seizing the initiative, Sparrow used his hearing which hadn't been affected to find the nearest soldier and threw him out of the fortress. He survived, the armor and his legs absorbed most of the impact, and it was only three stories that he fell, what happened next, not so much. Every soldier who was in that room at the time were thrown out through that window and landed on top of their compatriot who had fallen first. Sparrow who was thoroughly tired curled up next to the window and started to breath heavily trying to suck in air after the strenuous exercise on top of just being electrocuted.

"Sir are you okay?" The goblin asked his savior concerned, both the ball of light and the darkness spell he had cast had died down by now and once he could see clearly again the goblin saw a messy room with only Sparrow and himself in it.

"Good God Mother I'm not being paid enough for this." No amount and combination of confiscated items, extra credit and time off from school was worth doing this much work in one afternoon. "Can we get these stupid glamour charms and go home now?"

"This was the magic lab that they made us work in." The goblin quickly began rummaging through the lab and eventually found a wall of fang like pendants on lengths of string. "Here." Taking one of the pendants the Goblin went over to Sparrow's side and handed him the necklace. "Put this on, it should explain everything."

"Okay." A tiny bit suspicious Sparrow did as instructed and placed the necklace around his neck. "This feels a little weird." Sparrow immediately noticed something out of the norm. "Why does my voice sound so funny?" The goblin led Sparrow to a large potion cauldron full of reflective liquid. "And why do I feel...?" Sparrow looked into the cauldron and saw Apple White staring back at him. "Top Heavy..." At first one might assume that Apple had somehow arrived at the same location as Sparrow, however she was wearing the same clothes as Sparrow, and it didn't explain why Sparrow couldn't see his own reflection. Therefore the only conclusion one could make was that Sparrow had turned into Apple herself. "KKKKYYAAAAAAHHHH!" Sparrow quickly closed his mouth with his hand, he even screamed like a girl now. He quickly pulled the necklace off of him and looked into the cauldron once more to confirm that his appearance and his body were back to normal. "You couldn't just tell me about this!?" Sparrow asked in a accusatory tone of voice holding up the necklace in question.

"It seemed easier to show than explain." The Goblin replied defensively.

"Ah screw it." First Sparrow took all of the Glamour charms and put them inside of his duffle bag that was now nearly empty, then he created another Zipline leading to one of the walls of the fortress and signaled the other goblins to meet him up there. By the sounds of things the problem of the soldiers still outside had effectively solved itself in the Fiend roared to life, so naturally Sparrow and his little green friends left through the opposite side of the fortress into the woods on the back of a stone golem horse.

* * *

"How'd it go?" Dexter asked as Sparrow and friends rode up to them. They had taken the liberty of camping out in a trailer provided by Dexter's family, Mira had joined him while they waited for Sparrow to return. Wordlessly, Sparrow went up to them and dropped the duffel bag he had been carrying around for the afternoon at their feet before confronting Mira.

"Give me my damn MP3!" At once, Mira handed over a small device to Sparrow.

When asked what Sparrow wanted in return for his aid, he stated that he wanted the MP3 that was confiscated from him by Professor Rumpelstiltskin at the start of the year, though based on the bitter look on his face it seemed that the task he had been assigned was much harder then he had anticipated and now he looked like he regretted not asking for more, the fact that he would be receiving quite a bit of extra credit in his heroic's class either didn't matter to him or simply went over his head.

"Did they suffer at least?" Mira asked looking at Sparrow questioningly.

"Some probably got eaten by a Fiend, a couple were electrocuted, most were thrown off of one of the towers in the courtyard by at least three stories, you tell me. I didn't see your Charming anywhere." Dexter stated turning around to face Mira.

"That can't be helped unfortunately." Mira stated letting out a sigh.

Dexter had taken out the charms from the Duffel bag and tried one on, immediately surprised to see himself turned into his brother.

"I see, a glamour charm." Dexter removed the charm from his neck and looked into the bag. "Glamour charms." Dexter stated correcting himself. No matter how prepared one was going for, this was far too many for a simple assassination team. "Mira what can you make of these."

Dexter threw Mira the Duffel bag and she looked inside and did a quick item assessment spell on the bag's contents. What she found made her face cringe with anger.

"There are a large number of glamour charms here designed not only to make a person take on the appearance of several Ever After High's Royal students, but also select members of it's non human royal families as well." Saying that, Mira pulled out all of the charms at once, and destroyed them all with another quick spell. "What I found more distressing is not what I did find but rather what I didn't." Mira explained as she threw the bag back into the trailer. "We need to get back to Ever After High, now!"

* * *

 **Review Section** :

DJ: Don't ask questions you don't want the answers to. Yes and no, she won't have a giant cursed tumor running around her body anymore if that's what you mean.

Charlie: That it is indeed. In Raven's defense, she asked what school life for Raven was like.

Wade: It's been my experience that people tend to ignore the people who are smarter then them.


	45. Chapter 45

**Author's Notes** : God Damnit! Why does that keep happening!? Sorry about that, I seem to have posted Next Week's chapter today by mistake. So, Read, Review, Favorite, Enjoy and My apologies for my oversight.

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Chapter 45: Welcome to Wonderland White Knight

The trip down was a little rough, in retrospect they probably should have gotten John to build a elevator rather than a well. Still, Darling had to admit, that's one heck of a view, Wonderland's landscape was a massive twisted visage of rainbow colors and odd plant life, it looked very pretty, but one thing that Darling has learned from reading about various unpleasant animals over the years is that pretty='rip your face off without a second thought dangerous.' Wonderland, based on what she's heard about the place, wasn't any different from those, by which she meant that Wonderland itself, in addition to it's creatures, would literally chew you up and spit you out. That wasn't even the worst part that Darling could see, on the horizon was a massive cloud of darkness which somehow depicted a variety of roaring monsters battling one another while hurling bolts of lightning across the sky.

"Lemme guess. That immensely terrifying place over there is where we have to go?" Darling asked staring at the giant mass of darkness in question.

Darling for the occasion was dressed head to toe in the goblin forged armor taken from the dwarfs, after a few glamour charms were applied to make it fit her, made to absorb a fraction of the anti-Curse power of the Purificus. On her back was the Purificus shield in question which had some heavy duty enchantments tacked on to it to ensure that it wouldn't be burning through any one anytime soon, at her side in a sheath was the Vorpal blade made to take down the Jabberwocky earlier on. Around Darling's neck was a simple golden ring, which had a minor curse attached to it by Raven, which would give her a period of warning if she was attacked by any cursed creatures. Not to mention that all of these things were being used by someone with the power to pause time for short periods of time at whim, had spent a life time on a diet of magical status enhancing food and who was being trained in combat in secret by the White Queen. In layman's terms, she was thoroughly prepared.

"Unfortunately yes." The Queen of Heart's replied as if obvious.

"I thought so. Tell me do any of those look familiar." Darling pointed over to the cloud where various monsters could be seen.

"Bandersnatch, Mock Turtle, Gryphon, of course you're familiar with a Jabberwocky." The Queen of Hearts stated pointing to various creatures in the cloud of death.

"So in layman's terms, the Riddlish has taken parts of the curse, the instant death curse conceived and created by the singularly most terrifying being to have ever existed and swapped them around with most dangerous animals in Wonderland, a place that is already known for it's terrifyingly dangerous animals, the end result is what is waiting for us on the horizon." Darling stated letting out a deep sigh. "Alright, lets get this over with."

To further add on to Darling's preparedness was her mount, a familiar creature that nearly destroyed the entire school earlier, the same Jabberwocky that the blade at Darling's side was made for. He had bulked up a little bit since the last time she had seen him, the grateful Queen of Hearts had apparently been giving him all he can eat, and now he was asleep his belly bloated from all of the snacks he had been eating. On his side were a familiar gang, Maddie (who doubtlessly had made further preparations inside of her hat), Kitty (with cheat like abilities in super strength, healing and invisibility), Alistair (gifted with instantaneous short distance teleportation under the correct circumstances) and Bunny (who possessed the ability to go long distances with her teleportation). In short, they had transportation, muscle, tactical evasion, and communication with home base. The Clincher, the army of card people who were waiting on stand by several feet away in the interest of defending the royal family and witnessing the day that their lands would be free of the curse that binds it.

"So as I understand it, the idea here is to fight our way over to that dark scary place, let you walk into the center of it, where you will turn that thing loose, run like heck, and hope that the immensely scary thing you're carrying on your back will kill the other immensely scary thing that's held Wonderland in it's death grip for nearly a decade. Is there anything I'm missing?" Maddie asked a suspiciously happy look on her face.

"How about the part were we get our noble steed to cooperate with us?" Kitty asked gesturing to the Jabberwocky that they were sitting on who looked quite content to stay put and nap.

"It can't be helped." Darling stated making a put upon sigh. "We'll just have to back to Ever After and get Nevermore."

That woke the Jabberwocky up. The dragon moved so fast that he dislodged the people who were lounging on him and was soon making a show out of looking as impressive as possible, a fact that was severely hampered by the look of fear on the beasts face.

"I have no idea who this 'Nevermore' is, but I would simply love to meet her." The Queen of Hearts stated as if she just heard about some wonderful person. Granted, given the fact that she lived in the most terrifying place in the known universe and called it 'Wonderland', the term might be slightly eschewed around here.

"Believe me no you wouldn't, your majesty." Alistair stated sending a shiver down his spine.

"Don't mind him Nevermore ate him once or twice so his opinion is bias. Nevermore's a sweet heart when she's in a good mood." Maddie stated as she got on the Jabberwocky's back.

"And when is that exactly love?" Kitty asked joining Maddie on the dragon's back.

"After she's eaten of course, curled up with Raven and getting her belly scratched." Maddie replied in a tone that indicated that it was obvious.

"Maddie, that doesn't make me feel better." Alistair stated letting out a exasperated sigh. "Me and Bunny will scout ahead, we'll let you know if we find trouble." Saying that, Alistair and Bunny disappeared as if they were never there to begin with.

"Alright, lets go!" With Darling in control the Jabberwocky took off into the air. Darling was struggling to control the beast simply by pulling on stray face tentacles. "Oi this is kinda difficult, maybe I should ask Lizzie for some advice."

"And what would my daughter know about Flying?" The Queen of Heart's voice echoed from Maddie hat, doubtlessly one of the contraptions inside.

"Lizzie said she use to wrestle with those things back when she was a kid." Darling replied, prompting her traveling companions to laugh. "What's so funny?" To Darling's question, Maddie held up her hand with her pointer finger and thumb a inch apart, or in other words... "They would have been much smaller back then." Darling guessed realization on her, as in as big as the Lizzie from eight years ago. "Maybe I should've asked Raven then." Speaking of, Darling pulled out the ring being worn around her neck that induced a unpleasant sensation in her by looking at it. According to Raven, the ring worked on the same principle as the cursed dagger formerly kept by the three Doctors, a small item, with a minor curse attached to it, that would react and point to the presence of any sort of cursed object or being. In layman's terms, if some kind of hybrid curse Wonderland abomination did come out of the wood work and try to kill them, they'll know from what direction and how close it was. "Looks like smooth sailing from here." Darling stated dropping the pendant down her breast plate.

"Don't count on it." Maddie stated pointing a little bit away.

Indeed, there was a black cloud approaching them, though it didn't look cursed, in fact through the telescope Darling saw what looked suspiciously like a swarm of air born piranha coming at them with hungry intent and gnashing jaws.

"Ah crud." Darling stated narrowing a glare at the nasty little creatures. That was the flaw with their plan, if something around here wasn't cursed, then that means they couldn't be detected by their little early warning trinket, like for example a swarm of hungry Bandersnatch.

"Darling, I think it's time to let down your hair." Kitty stated in a concerned tone of voice.

"It affects you guys and and this flying handbag in addition to them. I can use it to escape by jumping off, but I can't think of much other that I can do with it right now. So hang on this is gonna get bumpy!" Darling did a nose dive on the back of the dragon, Maddie pulled something out of the back of her hat and threw it into the swarm of the Bandersnatch, a vial of red liquid that then exploded, flash freezing the entire swarm. In the mean time the group landed on the ground, soon being greeted by raining chunks of frozen Bandersnatch that shattered upon hitting the ground. "Maddie, where did you get that potion?" Darling asked looking suspiciously at the hatter girl in question.

"Yah know how Professor Rumpelstiltskin use to just take everything that Sparrow use to make and stick it into that cabinet with all of those warning labels on it?" Maddie asked prompting Darling to cringe in horror.

"How many of those potions did you take from that Cabinet?" Darling asked a look of fear on her features.

"A whole bunch of them." Maddie stated a worrying look of glee on her features. "Well, the ones that Sparrow didn't take anyway, well they were mostly his potions anyway so I can't say that I can really complain." Maddie stated shrugging her shoulders.

"Right." Darling stated letting out a sigh. "Honestly speaking, I can't decide who the school needs to have a talk to more, you or Sparrow. In any case, we're fairly close to the event horizon, we should probably be on the look out for any curse monsters running around." As Darling said that, she took out the ring pendant around her neck and held it up, frowning as it failed to react to their surroundings. "That isn't right, this close to the event horizon it should be reacting a little bit to the super curse." As Darling voiced her suspicions, Bunny and Alistair appeared before them.

"Nothing too dangerous, though you should know that there's a lot of animals up ahead that like to do weird things with your mind." Bunny stated emphasizing her point by drawing circles next to her head with her finger.

"What kinds of weird things." Darling asked cocking a brow.

"Illusions mostly." Alistair stated shrugging his shoulders. "They weren't that common the last time we were here but things can change, especially around here."

"I wonder." Darling stated looking down at her cursed ring.

"Wonder what?" Kitty asked cocking a curious brow.

"We need to get closer to the curse, we'll have to go in eventually guys. Can someone bring me to a area next to the curse that isn't filled to the brim with things that want to eat me?" Darling asked cocking a brow at the others.

"I might not be able to cross vast distances in the blink of a eye, but I am pretty fast, and I am known for my well rounded abilities." Kitty stated with a look of pride on her features.

"In the mean time, Maddie stole a bunch of Sparrow's highly explosive unstable left overs from the chem-myth-ry lab, the two of you should grab some in case we run into something." Darling stated reaching over to Maddie and taking some of the potions.

"Ready to go when you are Kitty." Saying that, Darling held out her hand for Kitty to take and the two disappeared into Kitty's dark matter dimension.

Traveling was faster but not much easier, everything was smaller there, opening's included, but Kitty and Darling were still the same size. Finally, they arrived at the large thick black smog that indicated the presence of the curse. Or maybe that was the skeletons lying just within visual range, among them a skeleton dressed in a lab coat, wearing a top hat with the familiar emblem of the Hatter family.

"They couldn't even retrieve her body." Darling stated a tone of sorrow in her voice.

"Maddie told me that she couldn't decide whether or not she could come here. So I decided for her." Kitty stated before she inhaled sharply. "Darling, I know you're trying to save the world and all... but bring them back please? Before the animals get to them."

"Don't worry Kitty, their bodies will remain un-defiled." While Darling said that she noticed that something was wrong. The little curse detector Raven whipped up, not working, not reacting in the slightest, and the curse itself. If someone was attempting to curse a entire planet to death, then said curse should logically encompass the entire planet, this chunk of landscape, while by no means small, was by no means all of Wonderland. Furthermore, by the looks of things the researchers dropped dead as soon as they came in contact with the curse, nearly a decade ago, in other words it appeared that the curse wasn't at risk of spreading beyond this point, let alone to the other worlds. "Something weird is going on here." Darling concluded after thinking all of this through. "Kitty, do you have the rope from the school?"

"Yep, right here!" Kitty stated brandishing a length of golden rope, but her family's name sake grin was no where to be seen. "But Darling, are you sure about this?"

"If, anything happens, pull me out immediately." Darling stated with a serious look on her face as she tied the golden lasso around her waist.

"Understood." With that, Darling entered the cursed fog, Kitty was horrified, she blinked and she missed it, a skeleton fell to the ground wearing Darling's armor with the rope tied around it's waist. Kitty went into a panic, she yanked back with the rope with all of her might, and Darling came flying out of the fog alive and well and landed with a groan.

"Ugh. What was that for?" Darling, not a hint of bone anywhere to be found, asked with a contempt filled glare aimed at Kitty. "I swear if this is one of your pranks...?" Darling only saw it when she sat up, lying directly upon the corpse of Maddie's mother, was Darling's own armor with the rope attached, cut off as soon as it exited the fog. A fog that in spite of being pitch black, vividly showed the pile of corpses lying on the other side. "An illusion. So there wasn't any curse at all." A highly sophisticated illusion, one that was designed to automatically change itself based on whoever entered it's area of effect. "Call the other's over, it's time to get to the bottom of this mess."

* * *

Without the presence of a actual curse the area was much safer for the experienced Wonderlander's to enter, and they in turn set to work in chasing the local un-friendlies out. Maddie looked like she was having a hard time processing reality, witnessing the illusion of her mother's corpse, as well as Darling's corpse that was on top of it, the proof that it was just a illusion was the actual Darling walking out of the cursed fog.

"Where is she!" A little while ago, Kitty had gone inside of the cursed area, but she hadn't come out yet. "Kitty's on the ground over there, evidently the fog hurts something awful when you try to cross back over without protection."

"I was talking about my mom, and the other members of the research team! Where are they? Why haven't they tried to contact anyone already?" Maddie asked tears in her eyes, not able to understand what was going on.

"Well then make me understand you jerk! Where is my Family!" Maddie screeched filled to the brim with rage, not realizing from Darling's statement just now that the only place the research team could be was inside of the barrier. "Out of my Way! OUT OF MY WAY!" Maddie pushed past Darling and entered the cursed field herself. Kitty was sitting at a tree with what looked like the worst hangover Maddie had ever seen. "Kitty have you been around the place yet? Have you seen anything?"

"Something mildly interesting, I tried getting your guy's attention by beating on the magic barrier but it didn't work." Kitty led Maddie through the brush and into a familiar sight. By all accounts, it was a perfectly normal village, it's tiny little houses were made out of straw and dirt piled on top of each other with occasional wooden support beams, the people were busily going about their day, doing trading in it's market place while cattle dragged carts along. Too normal, normal was bad in Wonderland, normal meant something wasn't working right.

"What in the name of the hot place deep below is going on here?" Maddie asked staring in confusion at the village.

"That's not even the strangest part." Towards this end, Kitty bent down and tore out a handful of green grass.

"Ever After Grass." Kitty then produced another handful this one of Rainbow colored grass. "Wonderland Grass."

"It's as if..." Then a realization donned on Maddie. "No. Someone tore a entire chunk of Ever After out of their world and dropped it into ours."

"Chunks, Plural, Multiple." The area that the curse encompassed, it was simply too massive to belong to one tiny village like this. "I did more scouting, there are dozens of them just like this one. Think less village, and more city."

"Oh really." Maddie had a look on her face, like someone who had finally had enough of a great deal of abuse. "Then it's time to put an end to this farce." Firstly, Maddie charged down to the village and demanded to see her mother, once she had calmed down Kitty got Darling, and they were surprised to see a familiar face sitting down to talk to them. "Stella?" Indeed, it was the same Stella who appeared briefly in Blondie's video as the new mayor of that town that Raven got all of those magical ingredients from.

"So you know me, but I don't know you." Stella stated in a suspicious voice.

"Our friend Raven met you a little while back." Darling explained hoping to ring some bells.

"Nope, sorry." Stella replied shrugging her shoulders.

"Princess Hraban Konigan?" Darling asked confused by Stella's apparent amnesia. "Her father Corvo killed your dad, the previous lord of the area and your father before installing you as his heir."

To Darling's latest statement, Stella's face cringed up in horrified shock.

"I could have gone my whole life without knowing that." Stella stated before taking a deep breath. "Before you say anything else that fills with a profound sense of disgust, I haven't seen my quote on Quote father for nearly eight years now."

"Eight Years?" Darling asked recalling a similar event that took place around that time line.

"Ever since the Evil Queen scooped us and a bunch of other people up and dropped us off here mentioning something about wanting us out of the way for a while." To this end, Darling was stunned, and Kitty was infuriated. "Well it's been eight years, so does she plan on letting us out now?"

"All of this..." Darling could hardly believe it. "All of this pain and suffering, just because she needed somewhere to put some people who were 'in the way?'" The more important question though was, in the way of what?

* * *

 **Review Section** :

DJ: You may recall Apple's mother mentioning that the school was being shut down for a few days on account of the numerous smashed cursed artifacts. And as a student of the Heroics course Sparrow does receive extra credit for acts of Heroism.

Charlie: Wait and see. Ironic how two things that have nothing to do with each other can go great hand in hand, like Bacon and potato skins.

Wade: Thank you for saying so. I thought so. Misspelled but I get the point, for which you will have to wait and see.


	46. Chapter 46

**Author's Note** : So We've dropped down to three to one Review Average eh? Disappointing, but not surprising I suppose. No matter, just the first sign of many that I need to start looking at new story ideas. In any case, Read, Review Favorite and Enjoy!

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Chapter 46: I have some Questions, Snow White

Apple had arrived back to her family's castle that morning, and currently she was sat a top one of her mother's balcony's waiting for the woman in question. Normally, this would be a rather happy moment for Apple, sitting here admiring the view of her family's apple orchard with Gala on her lap being petted and a pot of tea at her side. But all that Apple could think about right now was the contents of her Mirror pad that she had assembled before she got here. Finally, the woman of the hour arrived, Snow White sat down in the chair across from Apple and made herself comfortable.

"Sorry for the wait Apple sweetie, there was something that you wanted to talk to me about?" Snow White sensed something was wrong with Apple the way that she seemed to stare off into space.

"Would you like some tea Mother?" Apple asked politely, poring her mother a cup of tea. "I made it myself."

"Why thank you Apple sweetie." Snow White quickly downed the contents of the cup ignorant to it's purpose.

"How did you lose your virginity mother?" Apple asked deciding to test her potion infused tea.

"My wedding night, your father and I had to force ourselves on each other and we were so inexperienced that we ended up hurting each other." Snow White had a horrified look of realization as she just realized the contents of that tea. "Did you drug me with truth serum?"

"Part of my throne-work assignment from our new Chem-Myth-Ry teacher, we have to select a intermediate level potion and use the methods of Riordan to make it with maximum possible potency." Apple stated sounding mighty smug with herself.

"Yes well I do hope you're satisfied with yourself young lady." Saying that, Snow White got up to walk away.

"Are the maids all still chronic gossips." Apple's words gave the queen pause. "Given the potency of that potion you will not be able to stop blabbing the truth with the tiniest provocation." Snow White turned to face her daughter. "I came here for answer's, whether I get them directly from you or not matters very little." Wordlessly, the Queen of Ever After sat down back in her chair.

"So are you just trying to humiliate me or do you actually have a good reason for this?"

Wordlessly, Apple put her mirror pad down on the table and turned it to face Snow White. Using one finger, Apple opened a file on her Mirror Pad containing a series of school newspaper pictures. The first, had Morgan and Snow White together, they seemed happy and had their arms around one another even while they smiled toothily. That ended soon enough. The next several photo's often depicted a confused Morgan on the end of the butt of someone's joke, usually with someone blaming her for some misfortune that they had befallen. As the pictures progressed though Morgan's confusion was gradually replaced by rage, rage directed at one very specific person, one very specific person who was sitting there right now, depicted as hoisting some kind of reward for some great achievement without looking like she had to sink even the bare minimal of effort into the process. The final picture was very much like the first, in that it wasn't anything like the others, Snow White on a hospital bed unconscious, Morgan being taken away in chains, the look on her face not some dastardly evil doer who had just done in her rival, but rather simply the relieved look of a young lady who looked like she finally managed to escape from Hell. Apple turned off her Mirror pad and looked her mother in the eye, who visibly gulped under that stare.

"I've heard her side of the story second hand. And I heard yours. Now I want the truth." Apple stated in a tone of voice that had no room for compromise.

" _Sigh._ All of it is true. I sold a person I considered to be my sister up the proverbial river in order to save my own skin. For my crime she hated and cursed my name for her entire adult life." Snow White stated a guilty look on her face.

"Oh I think it's much more severe then that, for you see, I recently learned that my _friend_ , Raven has for a good long while now suffered from a rather nasty curse known as a Obscuris. Ever heard of it?" Snow White shook her head in the negative. "Didn't think so. Basically, it's what happens when a magic user learns to hate themselves with a impressive passion. But curses can also be inherited, from her mother for example." Indeed, that was the only logical explanation, that Raven who was one of the most power witches of her age before the Obscuris was removed, just like how her mother was the most powerful magic caster currently in existence, it wasn't hard to deduce the mutual source of that power. With the understanding that Raven was born with this curse in her veins the extremes of what her mother had done to her also makes a lot more sense, so long as it related to suppressing that curse that is. "So my question to you is, why does Morgan hate herself so much?" Snow white had a guilty look on her face.

"Morgan wasn't always the fearsome monster that you grew up knowing, when she was a child something as simple as a iron spear had nearly done her in." Apple cocked a curious brow at her mother. "People have been trying to kill her since she was a small child."

"Why?" Apple asked narrowing a glare at her mother. "Something to do with her mother and her never marrying after breaking up with Morgan's father." Snow White stated shrugging her shoulders.

"Jadis refused to marry this guy so he sends armed thugs after her daughter?" Apple asked staring dumbly at her mother.

"Riordan represents the single biggest lynch pin in the realm, take it, you take the realm." Apple cocked her eye suspiciously at Snow White's explanation. So with a sigh she continued. "The most important thing in running a country is feeding your people. Riordan is responsible for feeding a percentage several times it's size, so in order to keep their countries in a functioning state, they have to do what Riordan, and more specifically who ever is running it, says."

"In theory." Apple corrected her mother in a hard line tone.

"In theory, reality is that Riordan, whether they traded with their neighbors or not, would still produce several times the food it needs. Because of their religious beliefs they can't let it all go to waste, so instead they simply multiplied the number of mouths that they could feed by trading with their neighbors. From largest to smallest, Ever After, Neverland, the Cloud Kingdom, the Sea Kingdom and finally Wonderland."

"You're getting off topic, why did you bully Morgan and what did that have to do with her getting skewered with a spear?" Apple snapped in a angry tone of voice.

"One or more of Morgan's internal organ's was destroyed in the process, a kidney, given her O negative blood type and the size of the organ there were very few available, so the doctor's had to make a choice: save the only child of the one who fed the free world, or the young peasant boy who the organ had been intended for." Snow White stated in a sad tone of voice.

"So what, you were trying to avenge some farm boy?" Apple asked suspicion all over her face.

"Not me, but he was the love of the life of one of our classmates going into high school, Hermione Beauty." Snow White stated in a sad tone of voice.

"Briar's mom?" Apple asked in shock prompting Snow White to nod her head.

"No body realized that she was the one carefully orchestrating the situations that made it look like Morgan was using her magic to sow the misery and chaos that surrounded her at the school." Snow White snorted a little as if amused by something. "Truth was I didn't either until she tried to blackmail me too. When they had accepted that woman into the school, they had brought with her the most vicious and cruel blackmailer in Ever After's entire history. What she lacked in ability to stay awake, she made up for in her ability to gather information, hide that information in remote locations, and devising fail safes to disseminate that information should someone fail to comply with her demands." Snow White stated breathing out a heavy sigh.

"So you helped her because she was blackmailing you?" Apple asked with a look of disbelief on her features.

"I helped her to stop the schemes she had set up from coming down on my head. It was a simple matter really, Morgan the 'Evil Queen' was suppose to be horrible to I 'Snow White' as long as things fell within what the staff had deemed acceptable..." Snow White trailed off ominously.

"Then they simply decided that everything was going to plan and ignored it with a smug sense of satisfaction." Apple replied a snarl visible on her features.

"So eventually, I fell into her plans, which I suspect is what she wanted to begin with. For the person that Morgan trusted and loved the most in that school to be the one who turned against her." Snow White inhaled sharply as she continued. "And she succeeded, for even her most twisted and depraved demands paled in comparison to what I did of my own volition." Wordlessly, Snow White reached into one of her pockets and pulled out a thick bundle of envelopes and put them on the table. Apple picked up the envelopes, and started sorting through them, they were all written by one person, and all addressed to one person. "We didn't have the convenience of mirror Phones back in the day. Intercepting Morgan's mail was as easy as bribing the messenger owls the school was using."

"You were stealing her mail?" Apple asked using a knife to open one of the letters and read the contents. "You were trapping her in the school!" Apple snapped in a accusatory tone of voice.

"Jadis's perceived betrayal of Morgan and her trust destroyed any hope for a happy relationship they had." Of course it wasn't just a matter of stealing Morgan's Mail, Snow White also sent letters which kept Morgan far away from home and her family during the summer month's, so Jadis never got the chance to clear up the confusion until much too late. "I... I was a coward. I couldn't deal with them on my own, and Morgan ended up being the one to pay for it, the day that she finally snapped..."

"That I heard of." Apple pointedly looked to the Orchard down below.

"I'm surprised you can stomach the sight of Apples." Stomach the sight of her, the girl named after the cursed fruit that represented the severing of all ties between the two people who were once sisters.

"I couldn't for many years. But one day I moved on, I decided to suffer through all the pain I had caused the both of us and tried to re-establish ties. I contacted my god mother, I told her what I did, and she scolded me, she cursed me, ultimately she forgave me, and she told me the name of my daughter. Raising you was to be my redemption." Snow White stated smiling bitterly.

"How did that work out? I was a certified idiot before I met Raven. I doubt that I could have run Ever After if my life depended on it. But then again, you weren't concerned about that were you?" Apple asked having come to the conclusion a long time ago. "Raven isn't the only one I learned from, believe it or not but my batch of teachers actually do their jobs." Apple pointedly raised the pot of truth telling tea as if it proved her statement. "I particularly like The White Queen. She told me all about everything I would need to run a country, none of which you taught me." Snow White's face looked like a kicked puppy. "Keeping appointments, what beauty treatments were best for keeping my looks the longest, the most effective way to portray myself to the masses, stomaching the sight of corpses hanging on the ends off the ends of rope. That sounds less like the lessons taught to a future queen, and more like what you would give your political puppet in preparation of positioning them between you and the people shooting cross bows." Having reached this conclusion, Apple spoke the unspoken truth. "Everyone thinks Ever After is a Monarchy but it's not. Monarchy's are run by Monarchs. So what is it really?"

"The technical term is Oligarchy. When the story book of Legends was created the sons of the Seven Dwarfs were made kings for protecting the original Snow White and helping to defeat the original Evil Queen. They used that position and influence to take control over Ever After's economy and through their monopoly on all of the raw materials necessary, the army as well. Those original seven dwarfs are still sitting on their thrones to this day, while in the mean time the 'kingdom' of Ever After has no army of it's own or farms to feed their people." The dwarfs and their constant chemical tampering poisoned the land long ago, what they did grow was at best as about as edible as the ground that it was grown in, the Apple Orchard that no one was allowed in was proof enough of that, Morgan certainly had a lot of raw material to work with when she made that Zeugi, which as she later learned was Dwarfish for 'Ground Cancer.'

"Who wants to Kill Raven and her family?" Apple asked in her most serious tone of voice yet.

"I know who tried to kill them." Apple straightened up in attention immediately. "Technically speaking, we did." Apple narrowed in a glare in response to Snow White's sigh. "As I said, our nation has little going for it aside from people's misguided belief that we're the most important people in the realm. So in order to reinforce that belief we've been spending a large amount of time and resources researching science and technology. You will recall that several years ago we attempted to launch a unmanned satellite into orbit above the continent yes?"

"I recall that it fell out of the sky almost immediately." Apple stated cocking a suspicious brow.

"It didn't fall, it was ripped out of the sky by Morgan after it opened up a microwave transmitter that attempted to fry a death curse into the denizens of the castle that Morgan grew up in, Jadis protected the castle with a powerful barrier magic spell, and Morgan used her own ridiculously powerful magic to hurl our own satellite at us. Before she cursed Wonderland a week later, it was the most powerful act of magic she had ever accomplished."

"Microwaves?" If Apple recalled correctly, Microwaves was used as a method to reheat left overs, which made her think of a certain family who dealt in cooking magic.

"Our people claimed that they were the only kind of transmission that could make it through our atmosphere." Snow White explained noticing that Apple was thinking about something else. "Is something wrong?"

"Given what I've learned about yours and your relationship with Raven's family I don't believe you are privy to that information. Last question, I need to have a word with some unruly dwarfs, as such I need to let them know that I'm coming, and that I'm not taking no for an answer." Apple stated as she walked back into the castle.

"Did I mention that they had a army!?" Snow White shouted loud enough the retreating Apple to hear.

"I've got a dragon!" Apple shouted back in a equally loud voice.

"What about the Truth tea!?" Snow White shouted a little louder.

"Lemme know when it wears off! I need the time for my Throne Work!" Apple rolled her eyes in annoyance. "Good job letting the whole castle know by the way."

* * *

Dwemor was built inside of the continuously hollowed out mines carved by the ancient dwarfs from long before the story Book of Legends was made, from before many civilizations were keeping track of time. After the Book was bound the massive caves here were even further hollowed out and remade into buildings and housing areas, the natural position of ruby, emerald, sapphire and diamond ores were complimented by intricate stone carvings depicting epic battles of heroes, villains and Monsters, the master stonework of the dwarfs. It wasn't that dwarfs were averse to sunlight, but they did evolve from a strain of humans who were chased underground by more powerful magic users. Being closer to the planet's center of gravity and cramped caves made the dwarfs shorter and stockier, they developed larger ears and noses to better navigate the underground environment, but perhaps their most unique trait was what led to them being chased into this desperate situation in the first place, the natural ability to repel magical energy. Suffice to say, all of these details meant they had a poor relationship with Riordan, and only received goods from them through Ever After. Apple recalled all of these things and more as she was lowered down into the underground from a old well like entrance. The dwarfs knew that Apple was coming, as made evident by the fact that they were waiting for her when she got there.

"Take me to the dwarfs that tried to kill my friend." Apple stated, not asked, not negotiated, but demanded.

"Young Miss, we are not in the business to..."

"Yeah I thought you might try that, so I thought about something. Why is it so important that you lot keep my family close at hand? I know that we don't bring much to the table aside from a figure head for you to manipulate, but then I remembered something else unique about my family." Suddenly, one of the stone walls collapsed, accompanied by the screech of some kind of monster. "I believe it's called a Wyrm, a 'earth breathing dragon' which is technically another way of saying that it inhales and excretes dirt, so the name Wyrm is at least a tiny bit appropriate. Of course you guys already knew all of this, my family being the only thing that keeps Riordan's monsters from coming here and ripping you people apart!" The massive vaguely centipede like monster reached over to Apple's position and lowed it's gaping maw of vaguely shark like teeth down to Apple's level, directly over the heads of the dwarfs, and she in turn gave it a scratch under it's chin with her finger. "Now would you like me to repeat my request?"

* * *

 **Review Section** :

Zwei Eis: Quite, if she wanted to Apple could probably take over the world with that kind of power.

DJ: It's alright, sometimes needs to have the obvious explained to them. Go back and Re-Read Chapter 20. Like she said, Morgan wanted them out of her way. Keep Reading and find out.

Wade: Misdirection and fear mongering are two of the greatest tactics of warfare, Morgan just mashed both of them together.

Charlie: You'll see. ;)


	47. Chapter 47

**Author's Note** : And back to four to one Review to Chapter average. All is once again right with my world again, though I do plan on finishing this story, though I don't know when, and start doing a new Ever After High story when I do. So Read, Review, Favorite and Enjoy!

* * *

Chapter 47: I Require Your Assistance, Cupid

Apple was being escorted through a underground prison structure by a group of nervous looking dwarfs. The stunt she pulled earlier had spread through the underground city like wild fire and now she had all of the dwarfs at her beck and call. Apple was led to a cell where a group of seven prisoners were being held.

"Before you go in there. This place is a insane asylum, even though it use to be a prison." As if making a point, the dwarf warden gestured to the prisoners. "We call it the 'Evil Queen' wing, in honor of a certain someone who made this place a reality."

"In other words, this is where you put the people that survived Morgan's wrath." Apple concluded glaring down at the dwarfs in the cage. "Oi you lot." They hadn't responded to her verbal poking yet, probably too traumatized from spending too much time with Morgan.

Apple came to a sad realization, she did not pity them. These dwarfs had been irrevocably traumatized, suffered through horrendous mind numbing pain, and she could not find it in herself to so much as feel sorry for them. Sighing, Apple went for her phone. Daring had shown her a app a while back that allowed one to project large three dimensional images from one's phone, however it required the extensive use of photography taken from multiple angles, one of Daring's favorite past times it would seem, to use to full effectiveness, that said, it could produce two dimensional images easily enough. While Apple was readying her phone she came to another unpleasant realization. The fact that she felt nothing for Daring, her fairy tale prince. At least she thought she felt nothing, she only felt annoyance when Daring was making a big show out of being the one to be able to take down the Jabberwocky when the reality was he couldn't even handle a teenage dragon like Nevermore. In either case her app was done booting up so all she had to do now was select a appropriate image. After a few moments, a light emerged from Apple's phone producing a image of a terrifying witch glaring hatefully at her enemies.

"IT'S HER! IT'S THE EVIL QUEEN!" That snapped the dwarfs out of their terrified demeanor, so Apple turned the phone off and leveled a glare at them.

"That was a fake, unless you want me to bring the real one here you will tell me who got you to try and kill my friend Raven, and you will tell me now." Apple informed coldly watching as the dwarfs froze up in fear.

"We live in the deeper part of the mines, we were contacted by a broker from the human kingdoms, it was simple, kill brat, get paid. Move on with our lives." One of the dwarfs said before he started to break down crying. Of course it wasn't anyone who could be led back to their real employer. That would be much too convenient.

"Who was the broker?" Apple asked cocking a suspicious brow at the dwarfs.

"He came down from above, like what you did." So basically, the easiest way to find this guy, was to go where they had made their base of operations, and then go up.

* * *

"Are you insane!?" Towards that end, Apple simply walked up to the seven dwarf kings and explained the situation to them. Apple admitted that they certainly look three hundred years old, grey hair and the long beards intricately woven with a variety of golden jewelry. Right now their hairy faces were wrinkled with frowns.

"Is that a problem?" Apple asked cocking a curious brow at the seven kings.

"'Is that a problem?' Do you have any idea of why we don't go down there!?" The leader of the Seven Dwarfs asked in a Shocked tone of voice.

"Because child murdering Sociopath's live there." Apple replied sarcastically rolling her eyes.

"The reach of the White Family's influence doesn't go that deep under ground. As such it has become home to a variety of unpleasant creatures, some of which I believe you are familiar with." The Lead Dwarf king explained gesturing to the Wyrm that was outside the palace.

"Geez, now if only I knew someone with the power to control animals?" Apple asked in a overly sarcastic tone of voice.

"There is also another matter that has appeared as well. Apparently during their last attempt on your friend's life one of the would be assassins was cursed to death, the end result of that is a undead commonly known as a Revenant, they are bound to the ones responsible for their deaths, and will not find peace until they have ended them and their entire bloodline. Additionally, this one is covered in high tier cursed armor, increasing it's power tremendously. We have been having a difficult time dealing with it." The Head King stated letting out a deep sigh.

"How the heck do you people call yourselves magic proof if you're scared of a little curse?" Apple asked in a angered tone of voice.

"'Magic proof' is a strong term of phrase, our bodies treat magic as a foreign entity and pushes it out, which makes us 'immune' to the effects of buffing type spells. On the other hand, when someone unleashes a ludicrous amount of magical power for a offensive spell, then we are over whelmed and the intended effect takes place, usually at a much higher level then if it was used normally." Anything will give if enough force is applied, that is something that Apple recalled hearing from that specialist who keeps popping up to pull their tails out of the fire.

"Sure wish I had that purifying thing right now." Apple scratched the back of her head as she thought about the situation.

* * *

Apple returned to the White family castle and had taken to pacing while she thought over the situation. Calling Raven for help would only result in a overly concerned Raven flying over here to drag her back to her room at the school, again. It was also a much more personal problem for Apple. In the time since going to Ever After Apple had developed a nasty habit of going straight to Raven whenever she had a problem. Now this crutch was stopping her from solving the major problem at hand, which was helping Raven. It was while Apple was debating the pros and cons of any possible action that she could take that Apple was hitting the peak of her frustration.

"Is there some kind of animal that's good against curses?" Apple asked herself while scratching at her chin.

"Kou!" Apple turned around to face Gala who was sitting on her bed.

"Hello there Gala!" Apple bent down and picked the little snow fox up in her arms. "I have no idea what I'm going to do." Apple fell backwards onto the bed with Gala in her arms. Then Apple had a idea. "If I can't beat that monster, then maybe I can use it! But I might need what you would call a ace." Apple dialed her Mirror phone and soon a person that she wasn't entirely familiar with answered. "Hello, it's me Apple, I need a favor."

* * *

A couple of hours later, an angelic looking person landed on one of the walls of the White family Castle.

"Hello Apple, you needed my help with something?" Chariclo Cupid asked cocking a concerned brow to Apple.

"I understand that you are fairly good with curse breaking." Apple stated in a serious tone of voice.

"I explained this already, I make people who would be good for each other notice each other. I cannot extract true love, load it into my arrows, and shoot them at people." Cupid stated rolling her eyes.

"'Angels, depicted as having one or more set of bird like wings. Every fibre of their beings are infused with holy power granting them immense anti undead, demonic and curse breaking power.'" Apple quoted from a book she read earlier that evening, searching for a creature that naturally possessed an edge over the undead.

"I'm not a Angel Apple I'm a demi-goddess there's a difference." Cupid stated in a tone of voice which indicated this was a oft mentioned topic that she was growing tired of.

"I know that, but he doesn't." Apple stated pointing downwards, at a cursed monster below.

* * *

In spite of her insistence otherwise Cupid found herself accompanying Apple on her second foray into the underground city in as many days.

"Ah miss White." One of the guard's greeted while he made a nervous effort to avoid his gaze going over to the giant hole in the wall of the underground city. "How might we help you today?"

"Take me to their hide out." Apple stated her voice not giving a single Iota of compromise.

"Gulp!" One of the dwarf guards was about to protest, but then he saw Cupid who was traveling with Apple, his eyes naturally drawn to the angel like wings on her back. "Right away mam." The dwarf made a show out of calling over one of the Rhino like Bronto's that were used as beasts of burden in the underground city.

"Apple, they do realize I'm not actually a angel right?" Cupid whispered into Apple's ear.

"I'm mostly using you as a bargaining chip, if you don't want to come along all the way, I'm okay with that." Apple stated in a calm tone of voice.

"Why are you going anyway? Isn't this the sort of thing they bring in Raven for?" Cupid asked her voice a shrill of panic and concern.

"It's because this is the kind of thing Raven would normally do that I have to do this. Because at the moment she can't do this, I need to learn how to solve my own problems, and this is one of them." Saying that, Apple pulled herself on top of the rhino like creature brought before her.

* * *

The trek through the underground tunnels took a while, Apple was starting to get the sinking suspicion that she was being led in circles. Then her mount stopped.

"We have we stopped moving, why?" Apple asked looking over to the dwarfs in question.

"Because these beasts are smarter then you." One of the Dwarfs stated pointing down the tunnels. Indeed, there was something moving in the darkness, and it looked like a mist of some kind was coming off of the tunnel.

"What is it?" Apple asked looking concerned.

"Death." One of the dwarfs replied simply. Apple took one of the lanterns the group had on them and held it up to the darkness, revealing a Zeugi chewing on the dirt.

"A Zeugi? I can take care of a Zeugi!" Apple stated laughing at the familiar creature.

"Don't go near it!" A rat walked into the smog being produced by the Zeugi, and promptly burst in a mass of blood and random bits of meat.

"What happened to that Rat?" Apple asked looking scared.

"Sudden, complete and total mutations. The Zeugi is constantly putting out massive quantities of highly mutagenic toxic gasses with the capacity to completely overwhelm the body altering every single cell simultaneously, the body rips itself apart trying to keep up." These things really are like cancer, they're certainly nothing like the Zeugi that Morgan made.

"So the question becomes, how do we convince this thing to get out of our way?" Apple stated placing her hand on her chin.

"The question becomes what is the shortest route back to Dwemor!" One of the dwarfs snapped turning his bronto around to leave.

"Stay." Apple commanded and the rhino promptly sat down taking it's escort with it. "Now does anyone want to provide a actually helpful suggestion?"

"Well, if we can find another one of those things, I can shoot them with a arrow to bring the two of them together." Cupid stated bringing out her bow.

"Good. Now than, are one of you going to shoot that Zeugi for me? Or am I gonna have to take that cross bow from you?" Apple asked sweetly looking to the dwarfs in question.

* * *

One of the dwarfs took one of the Bronto's and used it to take Cupid down one of the tunnels that had already been blocked off because a Zeugi had taken up residence there.

"Alright Apple, are you ready?" Cupid asked bow drawn and aimed at the center of the toxic smog.

"Ready." Apple's voice replied from the speaker phone of Cupid's Mirror Phone.

"3 2 1 Fire!" On Cupid's signal, she flew a arrow into the heart of the fog.

Suddenly the Zeugi seemed to take notice of something, as it soon began burrowing through the ground with a oddly intent direction. Unfortunately, it's tunneling quickly brought down the ceiling blocking off the pair's route back to Dwemor in the process.

"Cupid! Cupid Are you okay!?" Apple asked sounding overtly concerned.

"I'm fine, but I don't think I'm getting back to Dwemor the way I came. We're gonna try and make our way out through the mine shaft to the surface." Cupid stated much to the visible exasperation of the dwarf standing next to her.

"Alright, you better get moving then, you don't wanna be in there when that walking poison smoke stack gets back in there." Apple stated concerned, because enclosed spaces and continuous stream of air born toxic gasses was a horrific combination.

"Good luck." Cupid stated before she turned her phone off.

* * *

He wasn't far away, and he looked just like how Apple remembered him, right down to the blood from his former comrades all over his cursed armor. Apple's hand went into her pocket, grabbing hold of cold metal rod in her pocket she sneaked up on the cursed dwarfish warrior.

"Excuse me." Apple asked politely, prompting the former dwarf to spin around blade drawn, intent on chopping whoever was standing behind him in half, but instead froze mid way. "I think we have something to discuss." Apple stated protectively holding a cross up in front of her.

* * *

 **Review Section** :

Zwei Eis: Thanks, I'm thinking that I should do that from the beginning next time. It is a mystery isn't it? Going through the trouble of ripping out several massive chunks of landscape only to replace it and everything in it with a identical version of itself, the real question you should ask yourself is who Morgan is trying so hard to fool. Good to know.

Wade: If it wasn't the Wyrm it would be the Bronto's or the Zeugi's, Apple isn't much of a fighter on her own but one of her biggest skills is to make those around her obey her.

DJ: You mean assuming she doesn't try to kill her? Wish Granted.

Charlie: I don't know if you noticed this or not but Apple doesn't exactly have a very good habit of thinking things through before she does them.


	48. Chapter 48

**Author's Note** : Well that was fun. Going to go watch a Walkthrough now. Read, Review Favorite and Enjoy!

* * *

Chapter 48: You Need To Stop Being So Reckless, Snow White

In all honestly, Apple did have a plan when she came to confront this thing, she had done extensive research to find strong anti curse talismans in order to protect herself, she had the wyrm on standby ready to help her if this thing proves uncontrollable. It wasn't like she was going with high standards anyway, she just wanted to talk to the thing. Unfortunately, as the pieces of the cross fell from her hand from being smashed by the cursed sword of the cursed dwarf, Apple realized that she probably should have done her research somewhere other than her family's library.

"Lovely."

Spitting out that biting remark Apple began hightailing it down the caves, soon being given chase by the Dwarf Revenant. However Apple had a plan B in store for dealing with her unruly opponent, more of her homework from school dealing with using the techniques of Riordan to make higher quality and dramatically more potent potions. Another weakness that she had learned about undead was that they did not respond very well to healing magic and potions, something about having a energy opposite to the living to keep them going. Thus Apple pulled out a flask full of the magical potion in question, and promptly chucked it at the Revenant.

"RRRAAAWWWRRRR!" The undead in question made a inhuman roar as it fell to the ground shrieking.

"Note to self, never trust my family's library again." The reason why Apple had went with the cross first was so that she could merely defend herself while she conversed with the revenant while trying to get information about it's former employers. Now though she had a limited amount of time to do that. "Oi, are you awake?" Apple asked straddling the smoking body of the undead in question.

"I am Banished from death." The Revenant stated as it's fleshy bits slowly turned to smoke. "Do you know what the term Revenant means? It is 'The Returned' kill me now, and in a days time I will be back..." By now the smoke was eating away at his face. "...forever bound to this blighted cursed armor." Saying that, the Revenant was uplifted from it's armor and disappeared into thin air.

"Well that's good to know." Apple, and her cowardly dwarf escort who had chosen to stay behind, appropriated a mine cart in order transport the cursed armor of the Revenant to the surface where Apple had with a fair amount of reluctance opened up her speed dial.

"Well, call her!" The dwarf snapped as if hurrying Apple along with a unpleasant subject. "Unless of course you've got something that can actually hold that thing!"

"Huu." With a sigh, Apple dialed Raven's number. "Hey Raven, quick question, how would you go about trapping a cursed undead?" Apple immediately held her phone out at arm's length as a screeching sound emanated from her mirror phone for a few minuets before Apple held it back to her ear. "You do know that you have no right to react like this after all the stuff you told me you got into over the past decade right?"

* * *

After Apple eventually talked Raven off of a ledge she explained the situation as it was, that she was hunting the dwarf turned revenant that tried to kill her back in the village. After talking Raven down for a second time she walked Apple through the process of making a silver cage and charging it full of enough magical power to hold the Revenant. Thus after a day's work Apple removed her mirror phone from the charging station that was connected to the silver cage so that Raven could use it as a conduit to channel a sufficient amount of her magical power into the cage.

"Thanks Raven, I'll call you later." Apple quickly hung up on Raven in spite of the screeching noise coming out of her phone, when she heard her phone ringing some more she quickly turned it off. "Now it has been about a day since you were hit with that potion." Apple stated looking into the cage and noticing there wasn't any movement yet. "Hmm. Still nothing." Apple instead took a look around the area, after capturing their prisoner, Apple found the shaft that led to the surface and found this old ore processing station, the assassins looked like they were using it as part of their base of operations, but someone, likely their former comrade had come in through here before making his way down below and chopped everything to pieces in the process. Apple called the dwarfs and they brought a contingent of soldiers up here in order to deal with their unruly fugitive/cursed abomination, mostly building the cage from silver materials. "Alright, you should have had a look around the area. Any one have any idea on any evidence that can lead us back to the person who hired these people?" Apple asked sitting on a large stone.

"No. They were not so foolish as to keep a record of the individuals who have hired them." One of the Dwarf guards stated in a obvious tone of voice.

"Understandable. Then we need to locate their treasure vault." Apple stated banging her fist against the palm of her hand. It wasn't like these guys could use a bank, which likely meant that they were paid in cash or some kind of goods, if they can find the payment then they can get a idea of where the guy who hired them came from. "Right, it's not like the people on the continent are on a universal currency." But then, the young princess looked dejected all of a sudden. "But depending on how 'successful' these guys are, they probably have a lot of things from a whole bunch of different areas, then the important part is narrowing down the most recent additions."

"Don't bother looking." The voice of the revenant stated from within it's cage. "These armors were our payment, as Ironic as it might seem considering that now I want nothing more then to be rid of it."

"Goblin forged armor? Goblins hired you guys?" Apple asked cocking a brow suspiciously. "No. There is fortress belonging to the members of the Eternal Flame, where they keep goblins prisoner and force them to craft arms and armor for them." The Revenant chuckled darkly. "They claimed that once our armor and weapons had been infused with the power of the Evil Queen it would make us virtually invincible." Indeed it was like a cruel joke, or from a certain point of view, a just punishment, he had been given exactly what he wanted and now he would suffer for a very long time for it.

"Where is he? The man that gave you this armor?" Apple asked cocking a brow suspiciously at the Revenant.

"Over in that direction." The Revenant stated pointing through the tree line. "I was on guard when he came to visit us the first time, so I know what direction he came from. The wagon he was riding on had emptied sacks for several days worth of travel, so he likely came from across the boarder."

"Hmm. I see." Apple stated with her hand on her chin while nodding in understanding. "Still, we shouldn't get our hopes up too high. The likelihood that these knight people are just serving as brokers for another group is also good."

"Weren't they the ones who were the source of the Goblin armor?" One of the dwarfs suggested raising his hand.

"That is a possibility, that these people simply outsourced trying to kill Raven that day. But the smart thing to do would be to hire a broker who can contract someone else to do the hit. They can provide their own payment too, so long as what they received is greater then what they were giving away." Apple explained prompting the other dwarfs to nod their heads.

"Except that, this person isn't very smart are they?" One Dwarf stated raising his hand. "I mean, they've been trying to kill Riordan's royal family for at least close to two decades now right? Well they haven't succeeded yet have they?"

"That is a very good point, but I don't think that is necessarily the case." Saying that, Apple pulled out her Mirror phone, disabled the ringer and ignored the number of calls that she had gotten which by now was in the triple digits, and started looking through a folder that she had assembled. News papers going back to at least two decades ago, detailing the various failed attempts made on the lives of Raven and her mother. Aside from the would be victims and targets, the only thing that these articles had in common was that the abysmally failed assassination attempts in question did something different every time, or did something before that had a new twist on it. "Looking back, these seem like whoever behind this is just spit balling ideas, probing the family for weaknesses that they might be able to exploit down the road." In other words, up to now, and granted, possibly into the future, has only been a prelude. In fact Apple hoped it was into the future, because that meant that they could quite possibly have a war on their hands right now and they were the only ones who didn't know about it. "Or I'm just being paranoid." Apple sighed as she put her chin into the palm of her hand. "What would really be convenient is if we could get someone over there to investigate that fortress."

"Ah speaking of which, we received a call a little while ago from some of your other friends, apparently they're in the next area over with a bunch of goblins." One of the Dwarfs stated raising his hand into the air.

"And you didn't mention this earlier because...?" Apple asked looking at the Dwarf with a deeply suspicious look on her face. "You were busy with the cage and didn't want to be disturbed."

* * *

"So we both managed to determine that those losers were working together." Dexter stated with a sigh arms crossed and looking down at the Mirror pad positioned on the back of the group's wagon which had Apple's face on it.

"I think they're working for someone else too." Apple stated her chin in her hand. "This guy over here is suppose to keep coming back until everyone responsible for his death are dead, so that means that someone else is involved with this as well."

"Well the person who killed him should logically be bound by the same curse too shouldn't they? That specialist person right?" Dexter asked prompting Mira who was next to him to nod her head.

"Poke the sleeping dragon in the butt..." Apple stated half a mumble with her hand on her chin.

"What are you talking about?" Dexter asked looking at Apple suspiciously.

"It's a phrase I keep hearing about Morgan in the newspaper articles I was reading. Since nothing short of a dragon slayer can so much as hurt a dragon, then that means that anything less is equivalent to poking them with a stick, often doing so when they're asleep, and then when that fails they run away as fast as they can with death and destruction following them." Obviously, the individuals who foolishly chose to go around invoking the wrath of these super predators are subsequently blamed for their rampage in both a legal and moral sense. "It's a term which means that responsibility falls not only on those who invoked a higher power's wrath, but also those who sent them to do so." Indeed, according to Raven a curse designed to seek out and punish those responsible for a grave sin will relentlessly hunt everyone who is responsible and see to it that they suffer horrifically for their transgressions. This Revenant as far as she could tell, was built the same way. "No matter how much I think about it, I just can't shake the feeling that someone else is responsible for all of this."

"In either case we've got something else we need to be concerned about." Dexter stated holding up one of the charms from earlier.

"What is that suppose to be?" Apple asked cocking a suspicious brow. "Observe." Dexter place the necklace around his neck and a few moments later Apple saw herself staring back at her.

"A glamour charm?" Apple replied in shock.

"Correct." Dexter with Apple's voice and appearance stated before removing it. "Also, even though this is the only one left there were a bunch of others at that place as well, which according to Mira were all made in the likeness of the various Fairy Tale and Noble students of Ever After High."

"Bar one exception, during my examination of the glamour charms I noticed that there was one of the aforementioned students mentioned missing who's name might be familiar, Meeshell, otherwise known as Raven's new roommate." Mira explained adjusting her glasses with a murderous glint in her eyes.

"WHAT!" Immediately Apple opened her phone, briefly made note of the nine hundred and ninety nine missed calls that now took up space on her log, and immediately dialed Raven's number. "Pick up! Pick Up! Pick UP!" It was in that moment that Apple noticed that the dwarfs including the revenant in the cage, were all fearfully aiming their weapons at her. Then she heard the familiar ringing of a rock song and spun around to see Raven glaring at her from on top of her dragon. "RAVEN!" Apple Gleefully shouted before she promptly jumped through the air and tackled the witch off of her dragon. "Oh I'm so glad you're okay!"

"Isn't that...!?" Raven wheezed before Nevermore made use of her fan like tail to separate the two girls. "Isn't that something I should be asking you? Or is that not the dwarf turned revenant that tried to kill me a little while ago?" Raven asked accusingly glaring at the undead monster in the silver cage.

"Never mind that! Meeshell's a shape shifting assassin sent to kill you!" Apple snapped grabbing Raven by her shoulders.

"Can someone who isn't so hysterical explain what is going on please?"

* * *

On the prydwyn, a pink tailed teenage Mermaid pulled herself out of the water and pulled off a glamour charm that was around her neck, growing several inches and maturing into the form of a brunette. Walking by both Ramona and Faybelle who had both fallen asleep next to half eaten muffins the woman made her way over to a cauldron and had a look inside, smirking when she saw one of the eggs inside were shaking as if ready to hatch, and soon others followed it's lead.

* * *

 **Review Section** :

Zwei Eis: Some people prefer to fight with their minds, I'm glad to see that I was able to convey that here. Let's just say for now the flight back to the school will be filled with a thorough lecture about the undead and why we don't mess with them. Hmm, I can work with that. Thank you for saying so.

DJ: The wish is for the next chapter. Thank you for saying so. Request Granted, update here.

Wade: Yeah, not the best character trait for Apple I will admit.

Charlie: Why not both? I like to think that it went well, relatively speaking.


	49. Chapter 49

**Author's Note** : Not much to say right now, Got a new cat who seems bound and determined to ignore me unfortunately. But moving on. Read, Review, Favorite and Enjoy!

* * *

Chapter 49: Day of the Dragon

Darling made use of the grappling line that had been hung on the edge of the well to pull herself up out of the hole in the ground in question, followed shortly thereafter by Maddie and Kitty. Darling could tell the Wonderlander's were furious, she couldn't blame them, she was furious too. For almost ten years, they had been exiled from their homeland, all because someone needed somewhere to put a bunch of people that they had snatched up and put them out of their way. First they were going to find Raven, then they were going to find her mother, then they are going to make her put an end to this farce once and for all. As if on cue the familiar form of a purple dragon flying over head served as a strong indicator of where the young witch queen currently was.

"Raven! Down here!" Darling shouted waving her arms in the air as the dragon ignored their presence and flew towards the lake anyway. "Maybe she didn't hear me?"

"Our black birdie has bigger things then us to worry about." Maddie explained her tone of voice both knowing and steaming with fury.

"Right then." Darling pulled out a chess piece from her pocket and threw it to the ground, and soon the miniature horse golem had grown into the full sized thing, a gift for Darling based on her official title of 'knight.' "We better catch up to them then." Darling stated climbing onto the back of the horse.

"Allow me." Kitty hopped onto the back of the horse and pulled Maddie along, soon the three girls and stone horse were inside of Kitty's Darkmatter dimension.

"Is this how you move around so fast?" Darling asked noting that everything suddenly seemed smaller.

"Ah ha." Kitty replied her signature grin present.

"Good." Saying that, Darling snapped the reigns on the stone horse and the three of them took off through the woods.

* * *

Inside of Bookend the transport mirror used to facilitate travel between Ever After High and the rest of the continent glowed briefly and out walked Dexter, Sparrow and Mira.

"If we're getting caught up in anymore people trying to kill Raven, then I need to stock up on my supply of unpleasant surprises." Sparrow stated holding up his mostly empty bag.

"Agreed. In the mean time we should go have word with Raven's new Roommate." Mira stated adjusting her glasses to hide the murderous glint in her eyes.

"Might be a little late for that." Dexter stated pointing in the direction of the lake where a tower of smoke was visible.

* * *

"There's the Prydwyn!" Raven shouted observing the boat sitting on the side of the lake, rolled onto it's side like a beached whale. Of course unlike a whale, it had small legs with which it could simply walk back into the water, the fact that it hadn't done so yet was a strong indicator that something bad was going on. The more apparent one however was the smoking hole in the side of the ship. "Land down there!" Raven stated prompting Nevermore to nose dive down to the beach and land on the shore next to the wounded boat.

( _20%_ )

"Apple stay out here!" Raven immediately scaled the side of the fallen over ship and entered through the hole. Much like a building that had been built on a sink hole, every thing was now tipped off to the side, including the forms of Faybelle and Ramona, who were both pinned against the far wall buried in debris. "RAMONA! FAYBELLE!" Raven jumped into the boat and began pulling the junk off of the two of them. What had happened here? What had blindsided Ramona and Faybelle? What was powerful enough to blow a hole in the side of the ship that her Mother had built? The Answer's to all of these questions climbed onto the side of the hole Raven entered the ship through and swung her wet tail over the side letting it drip onto Raven's head. "You!" Raven looked up to glare murderously at the young lady who had assumed the form of a Mermaid. "Why don't you drop that ridiculous form. I'd like to look you in the eyes before I break you!" Raven warned in barely contained rage.

"Ah but this form is so very useful, after all you have no Idea what I look like." The Faux Mermaid stated shrugging her shoulders with a carefree smile on her face.

"Who you are isn't relevant, I'll send your head to my grand mother for identification later." As Raven said that, small puffs of purple smoke coming off of her eyes, she extended her arm out and gathered a portion of magic into her palm and aimed it directly at the fish person in question.

"Oh I'd save your magic if I was you, I hear that you're in short supply of it these days I hear, and you can use all of it that you can get!" The Mermaid stated her faux smile growing bigger. The boat suddenly shook, the Faux Fish Person took advantage to jump backwards off of the side of the ship and enter the water outside.

"Damnit!" Raven got ready to go after the shape shifter but stop when she noticed that her feet were getting warm. Looking down the wood splintered and burst under Raven's feet causing her to fall plummeting out of the room and into the main hall of the ship, which to her horror, she learned was on fire. "What exactly happened here while I was gone?" The ship shook once more, and from one of the door's burst forward a familiar silhouette wreathed in flame. As the nightmarish figure drew close, Raven could only think of one thing. "Yah. Should've seen that coming."

* * *

Perhaps it wasn't the most relevant thing to be thinking about right now, but witnessing the sight before her eyes, all Apple could think of was that ship had some impressive construction going for it. After all, what else could possibly hide within it over two dozen to three dozen teenage dragons. Had mind you, passed tense, for while spewing everything from bolts of lightning to whirl wings the ship was ripped apart as dozens of dragons flew out of the ship ripping it to pieces in the process. When the dust did settle though the duo of Nevermore and Apple soon found themselves surrounded, though surrounded by what was hard to say. The general term of Dragons obviously applied, Apple could even make out one that resembled Nevermore and another could have been the off spring of that blasted Jabberwocky. Aside from them though, there were serpentine looking ones, both with and without wings, four legged ones, again with or without wings, ones that resembled large birds like Emu's, unsurprisingly both with and without full sized wings, at least one had a dozen heads, others were covered in any combination of feathers, scales and hair of some sort.

"Who? What? Where did all of these things come from!?" Apple shouted though she soon saw that Nevermore had rushed over to the wreckage of the boat and began digging through it. Another thing that Apple noticed as she went to help Nevermore, was that the dragons did seem to all have something in common, whether they were black, grey or any color of the rainbow, they all had extremely dark coloration to their scales, and were unusually thin as well. "Dark Dragons." Apple trembled with a feeling of dread. Indeed, Raven's lecture on Nevermore immediately came to mind, and the description of unusually aggressive did come to mind in the savage look on their faces as they snarled and growled at them in a impression of sharks at a feeding frenzy.

"Ow my head!" Raven stated pushing herself out the rubble and rubbing the side of her head, which was bleeding, while taking in the surroundings.

"Raven what happened!?" Apple asked grabbing Raven by both of her shoulders and shaking her into consciousness.

"If I were the guessing type, I would say that that walking sushie platter cranked the temperature on my cauldron over cooking Nevermore's eggs in the process which made them hatch ahead of schedule and with a nasty disposition to boot, fed them an illegal and highly potent growth potion to make them grow into that adolescent state, which has caused them extreme pain and made them ravenously hungry to boot. In short, we have about three dozen hungry, angry, sore teenage dragons that haven't learned the concept of self restraint yet." Oh this was a doozey.

"These are Nevermore's chicks!? But they don't look like her!" Apple made a amendment to her statement. "Well some of them look like her, but they're all different kinds of dragons."

"Yeah. I was afraid of that. The Jabberwocky likely scrambled the DNA in Nevermore's embryo's when he plowed her." Raven explained breathing out a heavy sigh. "If there is a god up there, then he hates me." A statement that was more likely then not, considering the number of religious psychopaths that were shouting about how their gods demanded she die which had taken a swing at her over the years.

Nevermore roared in challenge to her offspring, and they responded with leaping at her claws drawn. Suddenly however, a invisible force slammed into several of the dragons knocking them into each other resulting in a pile up of bloodied dragons on the beach.

"I have to admit I didn't see this coming." Darling stated as she and the two Wonderlanders got off of the back of the formerly invisible stone horse and surrounded the two royals in the wreckage, Kitty had her claws drawn and her pose reminded Apple of a wild cat ready to pounce, Maddie had taken four playing cards and a tea pot of all things out of her hat as she prepared to strike, while Darling had the dragon slayer drawn and ready to strike. "Raven, is there anything we should know?" Darling asked a very deliberate tone in her voice.

"They're Nevermore's chicks, Faybelle and Ramona are under all of this scrap wood unconscious, and the walking fish and chips platter responsible for all of this has cut through the lake to make their escape." Raven stated as she maneuvered to try and dig through the rubble surrounding her.

"Of course they are." Which in Darling's mindset equated to two things: the first was that she couldn't go easy on them, and the second was that she couldn't make a deliberate effort to hurt them either. "Kitty, dig the fairy and doggy out off the fire wood pile would you? Maddie, take my horse and go after that lady mutt preferably before she gets back to their employers." Darling stated, silently cursing the auto censor function on the school's universal translation spells which kept her from calling that pain in her butt what she really wanted to call her.

""ON IT!"" Immediately, Kitty disappeared into her pocket dimension as she made use of her knack to rip through the wreckage of the Prydwyn, mean while Maddie climbed onto the back of the horse and drove it into the water, her hat soon turned into some manner of thruster as she held it under her arm and shot herself across the lake like a speed boat.

"Nevermore, think you can-whao!" As if reading her mind, Nevermore had forcibly maneuvered herself under Darling and let out another challenging roar. "Okay then!" Darling wondered about Nevermore's actions, she had heard legends about Rivals who had spent so much time fighting one another that they could read and predict their actions flawlessly and then act on them side by side. Granted Nevermore wasn't quite the Rival Darling imagined herself fighting bitterly against one day and then being surrounded by a greater enemy together, but she could work with it. "Alright lets go!"

Nevermore leaped into the air at the same time as her dragon off spring, and both parties suddenly froze, Darling's hair was sent sailing in the air by Nevermore's leap and froze time in the process. Darling wasted no time and smacked a few of the dragons away with the blunt side of her sword, when time resumed again some very confused dragons were knocked into the ground with some bloodied noses while Nevermore opened up the resume in time by blasting at the opposing dragons. One had taken the challenge head on and blasted fire with frost resulting in a burst of steam. Before the opposing dragon could act Nevermore leap through the steam and locked claws with her off spring and clamped her jaws around her snout. A new born not even a day old with no fighting experience and little muscle to her name couldn't break out of Nevermore's experienced lock.

"Come back and try again when you've got a pair as big as your mother's." Saying that, Darling slammed the hilt of her sword into the face of the ice breather knocking it out in the process. The two turned around to face the other dragons who had backed away a step and were now circling around them. Their fallen comrades were proof enough of their enemies abilities and warranted more caution, Darling was mildly impressed by their tactical acumen that should not be possible with newborns.

"Raven..." Darling started in a ominous tone of voice.

"The memory and instinct centers of their brains are hardwired together." Raven stated as Apple bandaged her head using strips of cloth. "They know how to walk, fly and use their claws and teeth, they also probably think they have the same magical powers and body type as Nevermore too."

"But they don't, so that's another advantage for us right?" Apple asked trying to reassure herself more than anything.

"Speaking of which why don't you use your animal talking powers and get them to settle down?" A mostly invisible Kitty asked as she used a large chunk of wood to block an incoming attack and dropped the wood chunk when she realized her opponent's horns were lodged in the wood.

"They're babies, they won't listen to anyone, not even me!" Apple stated unhappy at the reminder of how useless she really was, before a thought occurred to her. "But I bet it'll work on someone else!" Immediately Apple sprung to her feet and cupped both hands around her mouth. "RRRAAAAAARRRRRGG!" In response to Apple's Roar, a familiar griffin like creature composed mostly of wood, bone and various plants flew out of the forest. At once Apple and Kitty slung Raven and newly uncovered Ramona and Faybelle onto the winged lion's back. "I need you to take them straight to the school please." Apple stated prompting the bird head to nod.

"Apple you should come with us." Raven stated stopping the Griffin from taking off in the process. "I'll be perfectly okay! Faybelle's griffin staff zombie thingy isn't the only magical creature in these woods yah know!" As if responding to Apple's bluff, but more likely her roar from earlier, a large mass of flesh and tentacles jumped out of the lake and beached itself next to Apple. "Rumpelstiltskin's Zeugi?" Apple asked looking shocked with the creature's appearance.

"More likely one of Mom's, she was using it to power the Prydwyn with magical energy." Raven stated observing the Zeugi.

"Really?" Apple stated a confident smirk on her face. "Hello there." The Zeugi appeared to make note of Apple's presence. "We're in a bit of a situation right now. Do you think you can help us subdue those guys?" Apple asked pointing in the direction of the rampaging dragons. "We would really like it if you'd just trapped them with a barrier of some kind."

Responding to Apple's will, the Zeugi spread it's tentacles and produced a large magical barrier, some of the dragons realized what was happening and thus while Nevermore was distracted with their brother's and sisters they flew through the cracks of the barrier. Likewise Nevermore and Darling realized what was happening and escaped through the other end of the barrier.

"I knew I should have bought one of those racing brooms from Bookend." Mira stated, emerging from the forest, the tears and dirt on her clothes together with her shortness of breath indicated that she ran all they way here.

"Bookend sells racing brooms?" Dexter asked panting as he pushed his way out of the woods. "Anyone wanna tell us what's going on?"

"Raven's evil room mate gave her dragons a magic growth spurt that made them hungry and angry." Kitty stated overly simplifying the matter.

"So that's where those flying hand bags came from." Mira straightened out her glasses. "They won't be able to fly very far for food."

"They won't have to either." Raven stated ominously looking towards the direction of the school.

* * *

Sparrow was organizing as many of the magic flasks from the 'Sparrow Cabinet' as he could inside of his bag, each of them filled with the evidence of his appalling Chem-Myth-Ry skills.

"Not so bad now eh?" Sparrow asked no one in particular in a gloating tone.

"What are you doing here?" Sparrow suddenly went ram rod straight and turned around to face the familiar form of a certain humanoid mirror.

"M-Mrs. Shards!" Sparrow stated too nervous to say the already difficult first name. "Wh-What are you doing here?"

"I _work_ here. I _live_ here. I was _Born_ here. I am am _magically rooted to this **Accursed building**_!" Each statement had a little more force added to it then the last. "WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE!?"

Sparrow was frozen with fear, he wasn't answering any questions like this, but as luck would have it his phone started to ring. Reaching into Sparrow's pocket Schlechtester pulled out his phone and seeing her daughter's name across the caller ID she opted to answer it putting it on speaker.

"Sparrow are you at the Chem lab?" Mira's voice asked, Sparrow couldn't respond and instead simply went 'aha ha' continuously for a few seconds. "Nevermore's eggs have hatched and have been magically enlarged and are now on their way to the school, do you think you can take them down?" Sparrow looked between the phone and the Mirror woman for a couple of seconds.

"No problem Mira. I'm all over it." Mrs. Shards stated in Sparrow's voice before hanging up his phone. After that, the Chem Teacher slapped Sparrow across his face and threw his phone back to him. "Get to work." Saying that, Mrs. Shards went back to her desk and put her feet up while leaning back in her chair.

"You aren't gonna help?" Sparrow asked rubbing his sore cheek while staring in surprise at the teacher in question.

"Why would I? Best case Scenario those dragons destroy the school and I get to go home." Schlechtester stated moving her hat to cover her eyes.

"And the worst case scenario?" Sparrow asked a terrified look on his face.

"The Worst case scenario, and unfortunately far more likely, is that you subdue those chicks and I have to make the potion to turn them back to normal, therefore continuing to be stuck here until my monarch finally wises up and leaves this doomed place." Schlechtester stated her tone of voice that of someone who was resigned to their fate.

"I don't know if that's suppose to a passive aggressive compliment or a insult to the school." Sparrow thought it over for a moment. "I want to disagree with you about the school but the evidence does seem to say otherwise."

"Dragons." Schlechtester stated pointing out the window as a dozen of the flying handbags in question approached the school.

"Right." Sparrow was momentarily confused for a moment, he figured that since they all had the same parents they would look alike, but instead they were all different. Simply figuring he knew nothing of Dragon reproduction, nor for matter wanted to know, he spotted one that looked hairy and took out that potion that he accidentally dropped his gum into one time.

* * *

Milton pored himself a cup of coffee from his personal coffee maker. Once again the school was intact, and tomorrow the students would be back, which meant that his time off would be over soon. True, normally moments of peace such as these meant that something horrible was about to happen. But in this case all of the students and most of the teachers were away from the school, so it should logically be impossible. Inhaling air that was dyed with Arabian roast Milton went over to his balcony and took one last view outside before school started again with all of the chaos that implied. Then, from over the top of his coffee mug which he had raised to his lips, he saw what looked suspiciously like a dozen dragons flying through the air heading to the school.

"Overworked." Muttering that statement to himself Milton put the coffee mug down and prepared his cot to get some sleep. Suddenly a giant mass of bubble gum and dragon crashed through the window behind his desk destroying it, his desk, and bowling over himself all in one fell swoop. "I don't know why." Milton stated trying and failing to get his arm free of the gum. "But I suspect me and Miss Queen Needs to have a word."

* * *

 **Review Section** :

Zwei Eis: I plan on making it so. At the very least when I do do the next story Apple will have this nasty habit from the start.

Wade: Well Apple's doing this as much for herself as she is Raven. A inferiority complex is not a easy thing to cope with.

DJ: Oh don't worry, after the treatment they've received they probably sworn off assassins for life.

Charlie: Not quite but close.


	50. Chapter 50

**Author's Note** : So I've been distracted for the week, affecting my ability to write, I'm hoping to get back to normal soon. But in the mean time Read, Review, Favorite and Enjoy!

* * *

Chapter 50: I Will Avenge You, Smok

Daring was only one of several students who were riding a combination bus and carriage back to the school, he appreciated the few days off from school he got, the scrape with the Jabberwocky left him admittedly frazzled. But now that the school was in one piece again and no more giant angry reptiles were rampaging about, well except for Nevermore that is, he could resume his relatively peaceful high school fairy tale life style. Suddenly, the back left wheel of the bus was blown off knocking the bus over on it's side and leaving Daring underneath one of his fellow students.

"What the heck!?" Daring climbed his way to the top and opened the side emergency exit. Looking up in the air, Daring saw a group of Dragons that were circling around the bus like a group of vultures having found wounded prey. "Dragons?" One of the beasts in question landed on the bus with a heavy crashing crushing the side of it. Daring smiled, not out of joy but his knack that blinded people with his smile worked this time left the dragon stunned, but it was quick to shake it off, but not quick enough as a giant vulture like bird swooped down and grab the beast before taking off into the air again. Bolts of lightning and hurricane force winds worked together to knock the remaining flying handbags out of the sky. "And a Thunderbird? I thought we were done with this madness!"

Not just a Thunderbird either, a Fiend came lumbering out of the woods and reached up and grabbed one of the dragons by it's tail, Dexter's Fiance Rosabella if his memory served him, and what suspiciously looked like Hopper with some vaguely frog like features jumped through the air and grabbed another around their wings causing it to loose it's flight and crash into the ground.

* * *

Nevermore flew out of the forest carrying a still unconscious Faybelle and Ramona while Faybelle's griffin flew out carrying Mira, Dexter and Apple.

"Take them to Aunt Shards, then come back and help us with the others." Nevermore nodded as Raven got off of her back, shortly before taking off into the air again. Explosions were going off in the air as dragons were being stink bombed, glued or simply knocked out of the air with great impunity, the work of Sparrow and his potion arrows.

"Wow... I didn't think that..." Apple for the most part was left stunned by what she saw, the gap between them and Nevermore was astounding.

"What? That a bunch of new born babes hyped on magical steroids would be this easy to subdue?" Raven asked as she climbed onto the back of the griffin.

"Our Chem teacher should have the antidote ready, we should start trying to round them all up." Apple was surprised by the sight of a fiend and a Thunder Bird dragging the unconscious Dragons into the school's courtyard, followed shortly thereafter by a frog person leaping over to the two of them.

"Raven, any idea what's going on?" Hopper asked looking like a cross between a frog and a person.

"I can explain later, can you guys help me round up these dragons?"

* * *

Schlechtester had successfully brewed a large amount of the potion to return the dragons to normal, and was now in the process of forcing their jaws open and using a turkey baster to squirt the antidote into their mouths. The dragons bodies trembled and quivered, before instantly being turned into a size one would expect of infantile dragons. Milton was seated on a chair that was brought out from one of the classrooms, the now much smaller dragon had to be cut off of him by the O'Hair sisters and were now being given a potent healing potion made by Schlechtester's students along with all the other dragons.

"Now than, firstly I believe some congratulations are in order. Mr. Hood..." Sparrow stood at attention at Milton's words. "You preformed admirably today, among some of the finest heroes this school has ever produced. I dare say that I am proud of you."

"Ah... Thanks sir?" Sparrow stated, admittedly stunned by what the Headmaster had said.

"Now than, Ms. Queen..." Milton turned his attention to Raven, who was protectively attending to the dragon chicks. "Am I right to assume that you know what is going on here?"

"I have some idea." Raven was using hair clips in order to secure a splint on one of the dragon's broken wings before feeding her a health potion. "Our late arrival from the undersea kingdom was a glamoured spy slash assassin, I don't know who she is or who sent her, but I have a fairly good idea who does know."

"That would be me." Sparrow stated raising a hand. "While I was away I raided a base where a bunch of goblins were being held prisoner, they were made to make a bunch of Glamour charms, before that they made a bunch of armor in Dwarf size. No idea who the people holding them hostage were working for, Mira left a message for Riordan's authorities to pick them up. Between you and me I'm content to let the proper authorities take a crack at them."

"And our assassin?" Milton asked cocking a suspicious brow.

"Got away, she was still wearing the glamour when I last saw her, Maddie chased after her and Kitty went after them when we were done digging Faybelle and Ramona out of the ship." Raven explained as she placed one chick down and started on the examination of another.

"It both sounds and looks like you had a rough day." Milton stated eyeing the bandage around Raven's head. "Take a break, that's an order."

"Headmaster, with all do respect, I'm not just going to lay down in a hospital bed while this lady mutt gets away with this!" It was different before. It was just her they were after. Then they took Nevermore's chicks, her _friend_ , her _**family**_! And they turned them into a Joke.

"Raven." Apple grabbed Raven from behind, wrapping both of her arms around her and used her full body weight to pin Raven down. "Do you want to end up like your mother? A rolling inferno of Fury that is more than happy to let everyone that you care about burn for the sake of getting revenge?" Raven saw everyone, including Nevermore who should have been attending to her chicks, staring straight at her with disapproving looks.

"I'm going to go get my horse back." Darling stated as she looked around. "Anyone know if Ramona's awake yet?"

"I do not believe so." Milton stated as he observed Duchess walking into the courtyard adjusting the cuffs on her shirt. "But I do believe that miss swan will be able to shorten the distance by a considerable distance."

"What?" Duchess half squawked in surprise.

"Thank you for aiding us in this endeavor Duchess." Darling stated radiating a warm smile.

"Oh come on I just got changed!" Duchess stated in a demanding tone.

"Duchess." Raven stated glaring at Duchess knowingly.

"For godmother's sake I better get extra credit for this!" As Duchess said that, her entire body warped and stretched and was replaced by the form of what looked suspiciously like a cross between a ostrich and a giant chicken, a creature that Apple more commonly knew as a Cockatrice.

"Wha...? How did she?" While Apple sputtered in confusion Darling climbed onto the back of the chicken creature in question.

"To victory!" Darling shouted waving her sword around before she and Duchess bolted off into the forest.

"Raven, what have you been up to?" Apple asked still looking surprised.

"You would already know about this if you didn't turn your phone off." Raven stated a bitter sounding tone in her voice.

* * *

Shortly after incident with the Jabberwocky, preceding the time that Apple had turned off her phone, Mrs. Yaga had called a meeting with Duchess and Raven inside of the Prydwynn.

"So you want to turn me into the next Evil Queen?" Duchess asked pointing to herself with a look of astonishment on her features, barely able to process the situation.

"Not the actual queen of Riordan mind you, Morgan, dear Raven's mother, managed to effectively and permanently divorce the two titles, rather think of it as more of a job position, a rather coveted position I might add." Baba explained in a lecturer's tone of voice.

"So what you mean to tell me, is that you intend to give me the position of the most despised person in the realm and not even give me any of the benefits?" Duchess stated in a deeply displeased tone of voice.

"Several thousand coins in gold." Raven stated prompting Duchess to turn to look at her with one brow cocked. "Ten acres worth of rich fertile Riordan soil, that's your 'retirement fund.' On top of that there's the prestigious position as chief sorceress to Ever After's Royal family, which you will hold for approximately twenty years, for which you will need a much more vast and extensive training in the magical arts then what you've received up until now." To Raven's explanation, Duchess found her mouth bobbing up and down for a few minuets like a fish, before that is she promptly clammed up.

"That... sounds rather tempting I will say." Duchess finally managed to admit.

"If you are only tempted then you can mule it over for a while." Mrs. Yaga stated waving the young noble off. "In the mean time we should discuss upping your magical training for the time being. Raven should have already given you a boost to that during the recent Jabberwocky crisis." Duchess's face cringed at that mention.

"Does this have anything to do with being turned into a Ob-whatever it's called?" Duchess stated clearly displeased.

"A absurd amount of magical power flowing through one's veins does help to unlock and draw out one's innate magical abilities if that's what you mean. I was more specifically referring to what young Miss queen was doing with your Knack." As if to explain herself, Mrs. Yaga pulled out a book that Raven was familiar with, having recently burned through the entirety of it's contents. "Do you know what software is?"

"You put it in a mirror pad to make it work." Duchess replied feeling like she was being talked down to.

"Good, that should make the explanation easier. People have what is known as a calculation area in their mind that allows them to use magic, a internal mirror pad which is dedicated to using magic one could say. This..." Baba stated dropping the book in front of Duchess. "Is software, designed to ease the use of the magical process." Duchess ran her thumb over the pages, as if counting how many there were in the book. "Many spells, have a large number of different factors one has to take into account when using them. You as a shape shifter should already be familiar with this concept. The tiniest miscalculation on your part when changing forms, could easily result in you being horrifically maimed, caught between two forms."

"Yes." Duchess's eye twitched as if she was just reminded of a unpleasant memory. "I am familiar with the concept."

"Indeed, you have spent your entire young life learning how to manage between the two forms of you, you practiced the individual steps until they became second nature to you, in other words you had to write the software yourself." Now however Mrs. Yaga gestured to Raven.

"While your efforts were impressive, they were unfortunately below the needs of young miss queen here, who more important than learning how to change forms, needed to fight off the Jabberwocky and her dragon who had gone rogue. Thus she procured a book on shape-shifting, downloaded it's software, and assumed forms that would be more useful to her." Now however Mrs. Yaga pointed to Duchess. "And now, so can you."

"You mean that I can turn myself into those monsters Raven used to fight that Jabberwocky?" Duchess asked legitimately surprised.

"You have the software but not the hardware." Mrs. Yaga clarified before narrowing into a serious look on her face. "I'll be blunt, you are not a witch."

"I've noticed." Duchess stated cocking a curious brow. "But since you called me here, I assume that you have a way of working around that?"

"Many of the first mages came to be what they are through the study of magical creatures. They had a vague understanding that the same energy that allowed the creatures that hunted them to use their abilities flowed through them in much smaller amounts. Through studying these creatures they were able to use crude and impotent forms of magic, it was using these abilities that they were able to pick off select numbers of these creatures and launch a more in depth study on their corpses." Mrs. Yaga explained, before rummaging through a box for something.

"Is there a point here or...?"

"Patience." Mrs. Yaga stated as she dropped a crystal on the table situated between the two of them. "This is what they found inside of the bodies of the creatures, well not this exactly, but it is one like it, it is what we know as a origin. The organ that allows magical creatures to store their magical energies for use in their abilities. Through the study of creatures that could use shape-shifting, and the study of these origins, these individuals were able to turn part of their own body into an origin, and thus make use of much more powerful magics."

"And... this is what you want me to do?" Duchess asked taken aback with shock. "To be precise your left lung, to be more precise a partial transformation into a Thunder Bird's lung." That sounded painful, a Thunder Bird was much larger then Duchess, only changing the lung while ignoring the rest of the body sounded... unwise. "To be more precise, I only want you to change part of your lung, where the origin can be found, into a origin. It is a task that will only take minimal magical energy on your part. In any case Raven can oversee the process, I have packing to do." Saying that, Mrs. Yaga got up and walked away prompting Duchess to glare at Raven.

* * *

"So what, Duchess is like your apprentice now or something?" Apple asked sounding confused having led Raven back to their old room, Nevermore was on the balcony sitting on her pot full of dragons.

"Apprentice is not the right word." Raven stated as she watched Nevermore drag the cauldron into her closet. "I'm not old enough, or experienced enough to be taking on apprentices, I'm tutoring her, correction, tutored, she pretty much learned everything I could teach her after we swapped back around. The rest of it is on her. My problem is that now I'm tutoring most of my classmates too."

"So... Duchess is going to be the Evil Queen now, not as in the queen of your country just the... role in the story right?" Apple asked a confused look on her face.

"She's in the running, and I'm seriously considering letting her have it, just as she's seriously considering taking it." Raven explained prepared for Apple to freak out again.

"Well I'm definitely not taking it now." Apple stated prompting a look of confusion from Raven. "The story, the throne, I want none of it."

"That's... a interesting development." Raven stated legitimately taken aback. "Why this sudden change?"

"The story, whoever the original Evil Queen and Snow White were, is little more than a play to beat you and your family down, and we've seen the damage that has done." Apple stated crossing her legs in discontent. "My 'throne' is little more than a shield set up in front of the people who really run our government, and the people who sit on it a extra layer of protection for them. In the mean time our soil can't grow edible plants because it's been poisoned, our armies can't protect our people because our industry has been monopolized and our knights and warriors are only trained in 'honorable' warfare. We have no idea how to do anything for ourselves and I am sick and tired of sitting on the sidelines waiting for someone to figure out that the book and the protection that it gives is gone, assuming that they haven't already. I am tired of people telling me what the right way to do things when not only is it not, but it's dangerous, and it puts people in danger. I am tired of being lied to and being told what's best for me and ignoring the overwhelming evidence to the contrary right in my face." The look on Apple's face was tired, like someone who after much trial and tribulation had finally managed to escape from hell.

"Are you going to be okay?" Raven asked looking concerned.

"I'll be fine, I just need some rest, but not now. Too much work to do, I need to figure out how to fix my country." Saying that Apple curled up and shoved her head into her knees.

"Do you need any help in the mean time?" Raven asked looking concerned for her old friend.

"With all do respect Raven, I think I need to figure out some things for myself." Apple stated an appreciative look on her face.

"How about a glass of water, with all do respect but you look beat." Raven stated as she helped Apple onto her bed.

"Sure, that sounds nice actually." Wordlessly, Raven went into the bath room and the sound of running water briefly sounded from the tap before Raven came back in with a glass of clear liquid in hand. "Thanks Raven." Apple took the glass and quickly downed it's contents. "You're a..." Raven caught the Glass as Apple collapsed onto her bed, the sleeping potion having kicked in almost instantly.

"Nighty Night Apple."

* * *

 **Review Section** :

Zwei Eis: Sparrow doesn't have the best run in the show, I only recall ever seeing mention of him in one episode, where he spent the entire thing harassing Raven while she trying to practice for the school's talent competition.

DJ: Thank you for saying so. Pity the people responsible for this mess when Raven gets her hands on them. I will try.

Zarsla: Always nice to see a friendly profile pic. I love Sigmu stories, and I'm honored for the comparison.

Wade: Positivity where you can find it as they say. And yeah, he usually does.

Charlie: A distraction, anyone who knows anything about Raven knows she would prioritize the dragons over the assassin.


	51. Chapter 51

**Author's Note** : Ah two weeks shy of the story's one year anniversary, I'm so excited! Read, Review, Favorite and Enjoy!

* * *

Chapter 51: The Time Has Come for War Evil Queen

"Once upon a time, there lived a girl, with hair bright as day, skin that sparkled like the sands of the desert, and lips as red and luscious as an Apple." Inside of a forest, the girl in question laid inside of a coffin of glass.

"One day this girl met a witch. This witch had hair like the horizon of sunrise, blacks purples and pinks, reflected off of skin as white as snow, and eyes that burned with intelligence." The witch in question, rode above the forest on the back of a living nightmare, with teeth like daggers, claws like swords, scales like shields, breath like inferno and silhouette like death it's shadow casting fear into all those who witnessed it.

"One day, the Witches friend was taken away from her, and she decided to take her back." The monster found it's destination, landing in front of the glass coffin, the beast used it's claws with gentleness that belied their incredible power of destruction to push the class lid off and the witch got off of her back. She was like a corpse, her skin was pale from lack of blood flow and her skin ice cold from whatever magic was in place to preserve her in this state.

"The girl was under the influence, of a powerful spell, one designed to induce a death like sleep, and from which could only be only be woken by one who loved her with all their might, all of their vast power." The witch closed her eyes, and leaned over the body of her friend, lip met lip, power flowed from witch into girl and the spell gave way like to the might of a torrential down pour. Lip parted from lip and the girl in the coffin sprung to life, sucked air into lung and color into skin.

"The girl was confused for but a moment, looking around her surroundings and recalling that they were not where she was moments ago. Then everything fell into place." The girl and Witch locked eyes and smiled, it all made sense now, it all fell into place in one solid snap, after spending a life, after wasting a life, steeped in chaos, confusion and lies, everything about her, about both of them, finally made sense. With this, as if sealing the truth's movements so that it would never get away from her again, the girl pulled the witch who had broken her curse in and lip met lip once more.

* * *

Apple awoke with a jolt, desperately trying to suck in precious oxygen with huge scooping motions with her mouth. Then she remembered the dream that she had, shock struck her features like a sack of hammers, before her eyes rolled into the back of her head and she fell into unconsciousness where moments earlier she had been sleeping. Raven walked back into the dorm room carrying with her two bags of luggage, one Apple red, and the other Raven black. Following Raven, was a familiar pink haired white winged girl.

"Apple looks like she's having fun." Cupid stated a knowing smile on her face.

"I should hope so, a fantasy potion was mixed in with that sleeping draft, she should be experiencing nothing short of her greatest fantasy." Raven explained while she gave Nevermore a ripe red chunk of meat to chew on.

"Whether she knows it or not." Cupid muttered before she grinned sitting down on Raven's bed, a predatory smirk spreading across her features. "So what can I help you with? Perhaps you want to make a certain fantasy dream you might have come true." Wordlessly, Raven sat down on a stool in front of her dresser, and pulled open a drawer and took out a potion bottle.

"This is the cocktail I gave her." Raven stated as she steeple her fingers together. "I don't drink it every night for two reasons: The first is that any potion, no matter how benevolent in intention, can become toxic if too much is taken too often. The second and infinitely more important, is that I cannot suffer through that emotional roller coaster." Explaining that, Raven picked up the potion bottle in her hand, as if prepared to make a point. "What I see in my dreams through the lens of this liquid, is how I both believe the world should be, and how I would like it to be." As if finalizing her resolve, Raven raised the bottle into the air before violently smashing it against the carpet floor. Through the smoke and liquid Cupid could make out a magic symbol resembling a happy face, but as if a lie that symbol popped like a bubble, as if the world that it represented was destroyed, never to be returned to. Cupid was no longer smiling, in fact now her face had fear going across it. "You think I'm depressed about my life in the toilet but I'm not. I'm pissed! In my dreams I see my family whole, the people I love happy, and the people who rely on me safe! But when I come back to reality everywhere I look I see a broken family, I see countries on the brink of war because they can't even feed themselves, and part of me was fine up until now. Part of me excepted the reality of the world as is, but now I find that the ones who hate me are no longer satisfied with just my head, but they want every head, of everyone that I love and care about!" Raven rose above Cupid, loomed in fact, seemingly casting the shadow of Hades himself, of Death and destruction made flesh. "They want a war? I'll give them their god mother be damned war!"

Raven went to her sack, and pulled out what might seem to be to the untrained eye a simple piece of drift wood collected from the surface of a lake or ocean. But Cupid knew what it was. She knew exactly what it was. She could feel it poring out of every pore of the wood.

"Raven! This is..." Cupid for moment was flabbergasted, not only could she tell on a instinctive level what the source of this power was, but on that same level she knew that it was impossible for something so pure to rise from something so twisted and broken.

"If I am to go to war, I need generals! I need the ones that they fear! I need the ones that they hate! I need the monsters! I need the worst ones!" Raven glared into Cupid's eyes, and Cupid, a Demi-Goddess, a being whose veins flowed with the blood of the gods of Olympus, found herself shrinking under that glare that burned with not so very well contained rage. "And you are going to help me find them! All of them!"

Having cowed Cupid into submission, both girls were snapped to attention outside of the window as something crashed down in the courtyard. Both looked outside to see a large mass of bird shaped metal spread out across the courtyard. Schlestester, alongside the three army doctors, were the first ones outside. The mirror woman removed a section of feathers on Duchess's head and jammed two fingers into her temple. Suddenly, the Giant metal bird convulsed and seizure and shrunk down into her normal form.

"Thanks. I didn't know I have a reset button." Duchess stated sprawled out on the ground naked, having yet to pick out a wardrobe of clothing that could change with her.

"It's not a reset button, I just jump started your adrenal gland and breached the pinched nerve in your neck that was paralyzing you." Saying that, Schlechtester clapped her hands together and produced a rolled up cloth before spreading that over Duchesses body. "Now go get some clothes on before someone sees you like that." Saying that, the Mirror woman repeated the action with Darling.

"HUAHG! KU KU! Oh ow!" Darling, after her lungs started working again, coughed and grunted in pain from numerous broken ribs.

"What happened?" The resident Chem Teacher asked dispassionately as she moved on to Kitty and Maddie.

"We never saw it coming." A living shadow came out of the forest and like a whip slashed through wood, stone and ground itself. "Like a bat outta hell, all darkness and raging torrent. When it touched me... it felt like I could just... disappear right there and there'd be no problem." Darling curled up into her knees. "I never felt something like that before... it was almost like..."

"Like you were fighting Raven herself?" The mirror woman in question stated giving Maddie and Kitty's temples a little squeeze.

"Who What Where...!" Kitty snapped suddenly able to move again.

"Oh my head!" Maddie moaned rubbing her temples. "Did anyone else see the giant ball of shadows pin balling around the forest?"

"Sounds like you three ran into a Obscuris." Schlechtester stated as she leaned against the side of the school.

"Aren't those suppose to be super rare or something?" Maddie asked as she rubbed her temples.

"Aha, your point?" Schlechtester stated nodding her head. "The fact that the intelligent people do every thing they can to prevent them from appearing together with their tendency to horrifically kill off their hosts does not lend itself very well to survival or commonality."

"Well, given all of that one would think that one, let alone two, appearing at the school so close to one another seems a touch... unlikely." Maddie stated tapping her finger against her lips.

"Aha. The only other Obscuris I can think of is Raven's mommy." Kitty stated nodding her head in agreement. A deep and profound silence echoed throughout the area as the girls clued into the reasonable assumption that was just voiced. "Do you hear that?" Kitty asked cat ears twitching as she looked to the dorm rooms. The Girls had to duck their heads as Nevermore flew lowly above their heads and heading off into the forest. "Oh crud."

* * *

Raven had Nevermore sore into the the sky in front of the moon, she was merely scouting the forest for sight of the Obscuris from a higher vantage point, but from the point of view of someone on the ground, Nevermore's body, wings and tail lined with spikes aligned in the perfect way with the moon to produce the crude image of a skull. That image faded fast, Nevermore and Raven spotted their target on a tear through the tree line, throwing chunks of wood up into the air as it chased something with reckless abandon through the woods.

"Got yah!" The Dragon and witch nose dived at the enemy who had provoked their wrath.

Whoever she was she was making use of a racing broom to nimbly weave through the trees, all the while being chased by the mass of shadows that was an Obscuris. A sound like a spring echoed as Raven looked off to her side, half invisible was Darling, Maddie and Kitty riding on the back of Darling's stone horse, jumping hundreds of feet into the air.

"Raven!" Darling stated before gravity cut her off.

"Don't try to stop me Darling!" Raven snapped filled with barely contained rage.

"Not trying... To stop you!" Raven cocked a interested brow as the three of them made a effort to stay in Raven's line of sight. "You hold off... Cloudy and we're... Catch the bottom feeder!"

Raven nodded her head. Nevermore shot a ball of fire down in the path of the Obscuris, setting a section of the forest on fire, not that it should matter to a creature who habitually tore through the fabric of reality. And yet Raven saw the dark clouds stopping anyway, taking on the form of a young lady with a great resemblance to Raven herself.

"Hello mother." Raven stated leaning over Nevermore to glare at the shape changed woman.

* * *

Kitty's power made chasing down the fugitive shape shifter child's play. Now that they were directly above the fugitive Darling pulled off her helmet and pulled her hair out of it's bun. Darling jumped off of the horse piece, time freezing as her hair was thrown up into the air, and stayed frozen until she landed on top of the enemy. The broom shattered under Darling's weight and both individuals were sent cart wheeling through the air and landed hard. Darling got up first, one of her teeth had been hollowed out and put back in filled with a potent healing potion, which she crushed and let it go to work healing her body. Darling grabbed her opponent by her hair and pulled her to her feet, holding her up by her collar.

"Now than where was...?" Then, Darling saw the injuries her opponent had suffered during the landing disappear like they were an illusion.

"Did you think that you were the only one with cheap tricks?" The Woman asked smiling evilly.

"No I didn't." Suddenly, Darling bear hugged the woman to her, the power of her armor burning against her enemies skin. "But I bet I'm the only one here with friends." A shadow had appeared above their heads, the chess piece Darling rode there on, now falling out of the sky after the two young women. Darling jumped away first, her hair sprayed off to the side and time temporally paused just in time for the stone horse to land on top of the one time Mermaid. "Maddie! We needed her!" Darling snapped running up to the pair on the back of the horse.

"I don't think it much matters to her." As Maddie said that, listening to a sound like bones snapping, she felt the stone horse moving as if something underneath it was moving, and indeed the woman who should have been flat as a pancake was pushing the stone horse and two Wonderlanders off of her.

"Pin her down!"

Maddie took several blades out from her hat and stabbed them into each limb of the woman as she attempted to heal, meanwhile Kitty maneuvered the stone horse on top of her to pin her down, on top of Maddie already pinning her down.

"Say cheese!" Darling had her phone out and used it to take a photo of the woman that they had pinned down. "Are we sure that this is what she looks like?" Kitty asked getting off of the horse. "Maybe, but I bet there's something here that she can't fake." Saying that, Darling scooped a blade of grass with the young woman's blood on it into a potion vial. "Now to make sure she doesn't get away with this." Saying that Darling took another bottle out, and pored it's contents all over the woman. "You'll probably survive this, part of me hopes that you do." The woman fearfully looked up to see Darling holding a lit match. "Nothing personal you understand, that goes to the family you turned into a bad joke, but whatever you came here for, you will not leave with it." Saying that, Darling threw the match onto the woman, lighting her fire.

"GYAAHAHAAHA!"

"Kitty, you go back to the school, bring back as many people as you can, and throw this woman in a cage where she belongs." Darling stated as she pulled her hair back into a bun. "Maddie you keep an eye on her." Darling stated putting her helmet back on.

"I will do no such thing!" Maddie stated her voice barely containing her rage. "That... That Witch turned our home land into a joke! She turned us into a Joke! Tore us away from our friends and Family! I'm not going to stand for this! I'm not going to just ignore that...!"

"Woman who single handed tore vast chunks of out Ever After's landscape and dumped them in Wonderland, a area that she then proceeded to submerge in the illusion of a instant death curse. Wonderland up until that point in time had done nothing to her or her family, what do you think she's going to do to you, who tried to kill to kill her daughter?" Darling held Maddie by both of her arms and made her look her in her eyes.

"Your mother just got her daughter back, don't take her away again!" Speaking of mothers, the surges of dark power were getting closer.

"I hate to break this up but..." Kitty stated pointing in the direction of the surging magic.

"Kitty, I told you to go to the school!" Saluting, Kitty disappeared again. "Maddie stay put! I'm going to go see if I can drive them away." Saying that, Darling ran back into the fray.

* * *

Raven was making use of a combination of fire, wind and barrier magic to shoot of blasts of force at her shrunken mother. The younger though evidently not weaker Morgan seemed to command reality itself as she used the tip of her finger to force the force blasts off into other directions or outright rip them apart.

"Do you have any idea how long I've been looking for you!?" A angered Raven was using make shift force blast attack to repeatedly strike her mother venting the built up anger and frustration that she felt against her mother. "Why do you think I came here to this school in the first place!"

"Wow... I could have spared myself numerous headaches just by staying in the cage they prepped for me back at the castle." Morgan stated sarcastically as she continued to bat away Raven's attacks.

"Then Why didn't you!?" Raven was loosing strength in her knees emotionally and magically exhausted. "Why did you leave us? We could have helped you."

"I didn't want help! I didn't want my family to see me like this!" Morgan snapped, shaking darkness off of her hands.

"We could have helped you... The Jabberwocky tore the Obscuris out of me, it could have torn it out of you too..." A emotionally broken Raven finally fell to her knees and wept profusely.

"That's... naively sweet of you, my little black birdie. But you seem to be under the impression I didn't try that already." A horrified look crossed Raven's features with Morgan's statement. "You understand the concept yes? Of true love, that can shatter any curse? Good, then that means that you should also understand it's opposite, True hatred, of curses that can't be broken." As she explained, Morgan's eyes glowed red, her signature 'demon eyes.' "Of rage that can't die, of sins that cannot be forgiven."

"Does your hatred, does the wrongs done to you, mean more to you then your own family?" Raven asked a undertone of rage in her voice.

"It's because of the crimes committed to my family that I cannot relinquish my rage." Morgan stated in a manner of fact fashion, making a fist and surrounding it with the dark current of her power. "The Obscuris supplies a infinite amount of magical power, it is my single greatest weapon, and the only thing able to hold back the tide of those who wish harm upon my family." Raven stopped listening by now, her hands were balled into fists, and tears landed on them.

"It's true, that power is important to defend oneself." A green light came off of Raven's eyes as she explained this. "So after I gave up the little tumor I inherited from you, I went ahead and I found a new source of power." Saying that, a almighty push came off of Raven like explosion, pushing Morgan and everything in the area away from Raven. "RRRRAAAAAAWWWWWWRRRR!"

* * *

 **Review Section** :

Zwei Eis: Apple just needs a little time to calm down. Your Welcome.

DJ: War, that is what would happen. Yes and no, it's quite nebulous for her right now.

Wade: Irony is cruel mistress. Occasionally, hard work and dedication succeeds.

Charlie: Not really, it basically amounted to cranking the temperature on the Cauldron and dumping in a super growth potion. It's precisely because the preparations were so half baked that they worked so well, otherwise Raven wouldn't have stayed behind to make sure all the chicks were okay. Thank you for saying so, though I'm more looking forward to the story's one year anniversary in a couple of weeks.


	52. Chapter 52

**Author's Note** : Chapter fifty two! Sorry but I don't have anything special planned for my one year anniversary. In Any case Read, Review, Favorite and Enjoy!

* * *

Chapter 52: You asked for an explanation Evil Queen

Faybelle was slow to wake in the doctor's office, wetly smacking her lips several times she extracted trace amounts of the taste of sleeping potion from her mouth, a likely reason why she was here now, that and the throbbing headache and bandages around her head. The fact that Ramona who was sitting on the bed across from her was in a similar state led further credence to her theory.

"Oi. Ramona you okay?" Faybelle asked getting up too fast and getting a headache for her trouble.

"No." Ramona shook her head not unlike a dog and bore sharp pointed teeth in a snarl. "But I will be as soon as I get some sushi in me!"

"So, the mermaid drugged us." Faybelle deduced with a sour look on her features.

"I told you there was something up with her!" Ramona snapped angrily.

"You said she smelled fishy." Faybelle stated leveling a glare at Ramona.

"I said she didn't smell right, you made a joke out of it!" Ramona snapped pointing accusatory towards Faybelle.

"True, true. But I think that we have more important matters other than assigning blame." Faybelle pointed out resting her chin on her fist.

"Such as?" Ramona asked cocking a interested brow.

"Learning how to make sushi." Faybelle stated with a shrug of her shoulders.

"Grr." Ramona gave off a toothy grin at that. "You always did know how to speak to me!" Suddenly, both girls were interrupted by a tree being thrown through the window and landing between them.

"Again? Really?" Faybelle looked over to the gaping hole in the wall as it quickly resumed the proper form of a window. Through the broken glass the two girls saw a tornado formed in the distance. "I thought the whole point of dismissing school for a few days was to prevent stuff like this from happening all the time!?"

"Come on, knowing Raven she's gonna be in the middle of that mess." Ramona stated as she picked up the tree and threw it back through the window outside.

"Hmm. Wind? You don't think that Raven's lost control of the Djin do you?" Faybelle asked cocking a suspicious brow.

"I knew it was bad idea to rely on that thing." As Ramona grumbled, she and Faybelle jumped out of the window with Faybelle climbing on the back of the transformed Gigan Wolf.

* * *

"I knew I shouldn't have gotten off of my stone slab this morning." Morgan was standing on the edge of a hurricane, ignoring the mass of debris that were being whipped around through the air and occasionally into her. For a person who has spent her entire adult life caught in the middle of a spacial distortion a hurricane was little less than a light breeze. While making her way through the wind that can shear flesh from bone Morgan took the liberty to think about this situation thoroughly. "I had heard a rumor that you had managed to put a Djin in yourself, are you that starved for magic after I removed your Obscuris?" Morgan received a smack up up the side of her head from a now splintered log that seemed to jostle her thoughts loose. "Or do I have to have some words with my mother?" Morgan looked up into the sky to see a bird flying over head. "Either way it looks like this situation is about to resolve itself."

Duchess had once again taken the form of a Thunderbird. Having a look on her face that was mostly beak which implied that she was working too hard for too little Duchess flapped her wings several times in the air. Duchess created a hurricane of her own spinning in the opposite direction and neutered the one that had formed around Raven.

"That would be my cue." Morgan pushed through the the weakened tornado, and took a brief pause for her flesh to restore itself, and looked down at her daughter. The winds had torn off most of her clothing, with exception to several new gold piercings attached to her nipples and naval, golden chains were hanging off of them and her old piercings, whatever modesty Raven had was being projected onto her in the form of a mostly seen through purple Bedlah, so either Raven had taken up belly dancing in her free time, or Morgan definitely needed to talk to her mother. First thing is first, she need to use this chance to calm Raven down. "Hraban!" Morgan clapped her hands onto Raven's cheeks, forcing her daughter to look her in her eyes. "Calm down! You have to calm down!"

"I-I-I... can-n't con-troll..." Raven was struggling to speak, she was trying to push the Djinn away and it was taking all of the breathable air with it.

"No you can't! Let go of it, this isn't about trying to control your power, this is about working with it. You are a guide for the Djinn, let it flow through you, and it will do the rest. Breathe in!" Raven's mouth unhinged and her head went far back as magic infused air rushed into her body. "The Djinn doesn't want to hurt you, it doesn't want your body, it needs you. Let it out." The light came back into Raven's eyes as the jaw that nearly tore itself off of her head went back to normal. "Huu. Huu. Ugh!"

"Hang on." Morgan grabbed hold of Raven's dislocated jaw and readjusted it. Now that the storm was calming down Darling was sneaking up to the pair of witches, and Duchess was circling above them.

"It's angry... I've kept it bottled up for a while... it's upset about being taken from it's home." Raven's voice echoed when she talked, like she was trapped inside of something massive and empty, and she was looking her mother in the eye. "I am upset about being taken from my home."

"Home..." Morgan took a deep breath and sighed. "... home is complicated."

"You have one chance to tell your side of the story." Raven stated holding her mother close. "Darling went to Wonderland. Whatever trick you used over there has been figured out. If she doesn't tell the whole school then Maddie will, or Kitty, Alistair, Bunny, Lizzie, John..."

"I understand your point." Morgan stated turning away from her daughter and leaning on a tree.

"Baba gets attacked by Ever After. After you rip their satellite out of the sky and throw it at them, then you drop off the face of the realm and turn up a week later in Wonderland cackling like a mad woman and spewing curses left and right." Raven explained in a knowing tone of voice.

"So you figured that out did you?" Morgan asked turning around to face her daughter.

"I can connect the dots. I also figured out that Ever After actually had nothing to do with the attack itself." Yes it was their machine, but they did not have the expertise in curses to wound Jadis so, the proof of that was that Morgan of all people couldn't crack it.

"Misdirection and fear are two of the greatest tactics in warfare. Our enemies wanted us out of the way, they removed my mother, a sleeping potion dealt with you, all I had to do was convince them I had become a invalid, and that I thought someone else was responsible." Morgan stated in a knowing tone of voice.

"So you attacked our close allies, placing your blame on them, then when you were taken out of the picture you waited for the ones who really attacked us to make their move." Raven deduced hand holding up her chin.

"Oh I did much more then that, I stripped their pawns of their meat shields. It wasn't hard, just identify all of the reasonably intelligent idiots with massive ego's and delusions of genius, adequacy, grandeur, supremacy and the like. With everyone focused on me and my curse no one saw me ripping out chunks of the landscape and replacing them with chunks of Wonderland, cleverly disguised using my glamour charms so that no one could tell the difference." Morgan snickered at that. "Now I could pick them off with impunity, whenever I wanted, and no one would ever be the wiser."

"And yet you never did." Raven stated a suspicious look in her eyes.

"I dealt with the louder ones, golems and glamour charms make for useful spies, but I needed to apply caution in my picking off of my enemies, if too many of their idiots suddenly started acting strange my trick would be figured out. Luckily I have different ways of gathering information." Morgan stated a smirk on her face. "My only mistake was that I under estimated the Headmaster, whether it was his his idiocy or his competency I don't really know. I made it no secret that I used mirror's to teleport around in my on going campaign of terror, a smoke screen for my abducting of entire landmasses. How clever that damn old man must have felt, when he figured out that the only thing that could keep down infinite power was infinite power, that the school was designed to siphon off magical power and turn it back in on itself, how all it would take to trap me was the right Mirror in the right place." Contrary to the smile of someone whose plan was wrapping up nicely, Morgan's mouth twisted into a snarl. "Never trust a drunk to do a sober man's job."

"So what you went on a extra long rampage until someone noticed the obvious solution?" Raven asked her face twisted in confusion.

"No. Someone else catching on to the obvious meant that my cage would ultimately end up somewhere other than Ever After High, where morons hoping to be the ones to raise the next prissy little Snow White and her Prince Charming punt all their brats off to this little air brained two faced useless little..."

"Focus." Raven interrupted, catching the way that her Mother's eyes turned color when she started to rant and rave.

"Right." Morgan calmed down and blinked purple eyes. "Through them and your generation's obsession with the mirror net I had a ready source of inside information on what those old men were up to, so long as I could convince the right people to put me somewhere I wouldn't be in anyone's way. As it so happened my old teachers still worked there at the time, included among them my old Evilnomics, History of Evil Spells, and Magicology professor."

"Sounds like Titania was quite busy during your high school days." Raven smiled bitterly as the images of a elderly witch and a Mother fairy overlapped in her mind.

"A bit busier then your dusty old crone, she was usually the one given the task of prodding the fat tub of lard into action. So thus everything was on track, hostages removed, spies planted, network established, all that's really left is you." Morgan's tone of voice and look on her face was full of seriousness.

"Fairy fungus, giant spider venom, Snap Dragons, heart and back carvings?" Raven listed in a manner that demanded answers, cocking a brow suspiciously.

"For the Fairy Fungus and Spider venom: the Matanago doesn't just use the body as fertilizer and a means of spreading itself, it also takes over your nervous system by mimicking your cells and bonding with your nerves making their way to the brain, it was while studying these cells for her college thesis that Titania discovered that this gave them unique regenerative properties. Before they turn you into a zombie that is. So the next question is 'how to stop that from happening?'" Morgan looked like a child again, and it wasn't just her glamour charm imposing the frame of a teenager on her, as she talked about Titania's thesis. "The conclusion she reached was 'you simply have to render the nervous system too damaged for it to take control.'" It was a unique relationship: The venom wrecks and compartmentalizes the Nervous system, the fungus fills in the gaps, instant accelerated healing factor. "The whole process unfortunately would wrack the would be patient with indescribable pain for the rest of their life as their nerves constantly die off and regenerate." Like the Fairy fungus, Raven too filled in the gaps, how one day Titania found someone on the brink of death from the very reality around them trying to rip them apart. How through the use of this very risky and dangerous procedure the patient could be kept alive in indescribable pain for the rest of their life. How that barely lucid patient made use of a glamour charm to force her body to stay in one piece. "I was a little miffed to learn that Wolfy was going behind my back and under Ruby's cloak, but then again without the old fairy tail magic I would have died off long before Titania had the chance to help me. So I made a new glamour charm, one that would age with me, one that no one would ever be able to burn, because it was right here." Morgan stated tapping the side of her head knowingly. "Powered by the very thing that I sought to suppress. Still, we agreed that the longer I stayed in this accursed place the longer my rehabilitation would take. So while they schemed I got them to kick, me, out."

"Off topic. I get that I probably inherited the fairy fungus, spider venom and obscuris from you, but the back and heart carvings seem a little extreme and unlikely." Raven stated glaring bitterly at her mother.

"Oh yes your grandmother probably told you all about that, how the ritual bonding of our monarch to our home land involved making ourselves host to a variety of unpleasant entities. How we turn the threads binding our spirits and bodies into baskets so that such beings can keep one foot in this world and one foot in another." She didn't bind something to Raven, so much as she made a place for the Obscuris to go that wasn't in her body. "As a added precaution. I modified the Thorn family curse into something that would provide you a layer of protection, and a vent for the Obscuris to punt off into another direction."

"I get that, but my _heart_?" Raven asked her tone of voice that of someone who had been thoroughly violated.

"Ritually sealed and impossible for anything to bind itself to you or you to anyone until it's removed. Did you think that I was the only who noticed that Obscuri are bottomless pits of raw magical power? Oh no." Morgan's rage was reaching new heights, her fists balled and producing black smoke and her temper seething. "One out of ten people, no matter where they live, will develop magical power of some level of potency. When they are raise to hate this magical power within their bodies with a conditioned instinctive passion, Obscuri are born. So tell me something: where are all of them?" Where are all of the black clouds of dark magical power zipping across the skyline turning reality itself into a braided pony tail? Where are the children conditioned to despise that which beats within their hearts until it explodes in a shower of darkness and hatred? "Someone has been making great pains to scoop up Obscuri and believe you me, I'm going to find out who!"

"Mom. I know where my Obscuris came from, but where did yours?" Raven asked looking her mother directly in her eyes. "It isn't just about magic, I've grown up with you for most of my life, you don't hate magic."

"I hate myself. I always hated myself. I hated myself for all the times that I let my rage get out of control as a child and letting others get hurt because of it. After that I hated my weakness for not doing what I had to to make them stop in the first place. When I got older I hated myself for being played like a fool and making our people suffer under the boots of these idiots and not being able to stop them. Now I hate myself for all the years I had to spend away from you and your father." Morgan let out a exasperated sigh as she rolled her shoulders. "And I'm really going to hate myself for what I'm about to do."\

"Don't you think you've piled up enough regrets already?" Darling asked, finally moving out of the tree line, dragon slayer in hand. "Why don't you come back with us? So that we can put you somewhere you can wait out the rest of this unpleasant business okay?"

"Oh so you were listening in? Good, it's convenient that I don't have to repeat myself." Morgan stated in a tone of voice that was not concerned in the least bit, it was however slightly condescending. "Now would you kindly go back to the school and inform your classmates to stay put? A war zone is no where for children after all."

"Nor is it a place for you! DUCHESS HIT HER!" As Darling shouted, Duchess's body was wreathed in flame as she assumed the form of a phoenix. The flaming bird dive bombed Morgan spewing flame all the way down on top of the witch. Morgan raised her hand, dispersed the flame, and grabbed hold of the transformed Duchess by her neck all in one go.

"Ah good a fire, how about you and me do some ritual magic eh?"

* * *

 **Review Section** :

Zwei Eis: Does this clear things up for you? Also thank you for saying so.

Charlie: Does this answer your Question? Finding out what you wanted all along and figuring out it was right in front of you the entire time isn't a easy thing for most people to cope with.

DJ: Rather, isn't full blown war the only thing that can be done at this point in time? Thank you for saying so. Not quite, as I think you might have been able to tell. Wait and see.

Wade: I can, I can rather easily. Hmm, one notch better then the Obscuris I'd say.


	53. Chapter 53

**Author's Note** : One Year Anniversary! Tomorrow, but I'm not picky, in fact: IMMA CELEBRATIN! WOOOO! Read, Review, Favorite and Enjoy!

* * *

Chapter 53: This is Truth, Grimm

Apple was in her's and Raven's personal bathroom, splashing cold water on her face in light of the recent truth she learned about herself. She, Apple White, loved her best friend and roommate Raven Queen. Or was this so called love a by product of the uniquely warped mindset created when someone is raised to believe that she is a character in a fairy tale and that she will forever live happily ever after just as soon as one person wills the universe in her favor through a single 'poisoned' apple.

"Huu..."

Apple needed some time to clear her head, just... go somewhere that didn't have anything to do with fairy tales for a while and try to think like a normal person for once in her life. Alas it didn't seem like she would be having that chance. Walking onto her balcony, Apple saw that the entire sky had turned red, a wall of fire had taken up the horizon on the far side of the forest, something was raining down balls of fire on the courtyard and masses of undead and armor were digging themselves out of the ground and fighting against the students.

"What the heck!?" Apple shrieked a horrified look on her face.

* * *

Daring slammed his great sword into the mid-section of one creatures that had tore themselves out of the ground, and followed up by slamming the weapon into the top of it's head bisecting it in the process. Not that the creature seemed to notice, the split down the middle resealed itself and the undead mass of metal got back to it's feet with the type of casual ignorance only a tree was worthy of.

"WHY! WON'T! YOU! STAY! DOWN!?" Daring punctuated his shouts of frustration by chopping his sword down on top of his opponent's head. A lasso reached out and grabbed two of their enemy around their necks and yanked them both down.

"Stop attacking them it isn't working!" Hunter shouted as he used a crossbow to pin the downed undead in place. "Incapacitate them as best you can and then retreat!"

"Working on it!" Sparrow shouted firing a arrow into the chest of one of the Undead, which then exploded. Suddenly, a knife from the cafeteria was thrown at the head of the undead, which then shrieked in pain before collapsing to the ground. The confused heroes turned around to face Mira who was holding a bag of silverware from the cafeteria, a roll of duct tape and a small cauldron full of what they quickly realized was some kind of blade oil.

"I don't know how it works, but I'll roll with it." Hunter taped the bits of silver to the end of his cross bow bolts, Sparrow dipped his arrow heads into the cauldron, and Daring used his hand to coat his blade in a layer of the stuff. This time when the three heroes struck their opponents they stayed down.

"Anyone know what these things are?" Daring asked watching as bits of flesh evaporated from the metal plated foes.

"They're called Draugr, warrior type Mid Rank undead, Riordan maintains a standing army of them, with a tiny bit more sophistication." Mira explained analytically adjusting her glasses.

"Good to know. But what are they doing here?" Sparrow asked as he pulled bits of silverware out of the downed enemy.

"If I could make a educated guess: The school was originally a fortress. Fortresses are typically the sights of large battles. Someone could have used a powerful curse to drench up their corpses and send them after us." Mira explained scratching her chin. "What I don't know is why?"

"How about we ask them?" More Draugr emerged from the forest in the direction that Daring's great sword was pointing in.

* * *

" **CHHHAAAARRRRRRMMMMIIIINNNNGGGG!** "

That nightmarish voice echoed throughout the battlefield, and it was a battlefield too, many of the trees of the forest were blatantly ripped out of the ground and torn apart, transformed into a weird mishmash of Archespores and warrior type undead. More important then what they were is where they were going, if these things were on different sides of a war then they should all be fighting each other, instead they were all walking in one direction, the ones that didn't stop to pay them a little bit of attention that is. This scared Kitty for two reasons, the first is that rather then two sides of a army fighting in a battle, these people were instead the victims of a one sided massacre, which means that they were about to face a one sided massacre. The second reason was the demonic voice that echoed out a few moments ago, demanding Charming blood, and Kitty had a Charming right next to her.

"You!" Momentarily distracted by the scorched battle field with trees turned warriors roaming about Kitty was soon reminded about the source of this madness when Darling pointed accusingly towards the Evil Queen. "What is this!? What did you do!?"

"I cast a curse, I thought that was rather obvious." Morgan replied in a casual tone of voice, using bare hands to rip chunks of Iron armor off of her body. "Sabrina's Crucifixion. Remember that name and tell it to someone smarter then you. In the meantime I have a tight schedule to keep." Morgan picked up her daughter's unconscious body and wrapped it in the cloak she was wearing before walking away.

"You are not going anywhere!" Darling snapped sword swung at Morgan to take her head off.

"I don't have time for this." Muttering that, Morgan snapped her fingers and immediately the dragon slayer wrapped itself around Darling's body. "A word of advice. Never attack a witch with a sword that she gave you." Morgan was suddenly greeted by the sensation of a invisible fist clashing against her face, Kitty making her presence known. "That isn't going to work you know." Kitty screeched as she repeatedly struck with near invisible claw, fist and at one point in time even bit the witch. "Are you done?" Not waiting for a answer, Morgan kicked the Cheshire cat sending her sailing through the air and landing behind her. "I would choose to evacuate this place if I was you Charming, she hates your kind."

"Who is 'She?'" Darling asked a ominous feeling going down the back of her neck. As if answering that question, Morgan turned around to face Darling with a evil smirk on her face.

"The Queen of Evil of course." Morgan snapped her fingers again, and both Darling and Kitty were sent sailing away.

* * *

Milton was very confused, the air hummed with magical power, the school was under attack by undead and magical bombardment, and now this person had appeared. Milton would be mistaken for thinking that she was Snow White, with her dark black hair pale skin and ruby red lips many would. But she was much younger, fourteen years old at the most, which as a father, grandfather and principal distressed him greatly when he discovered the tell tale bulge under her dress of pregnancy.

"Excuse me young lady." Milton politely greeted, putting his hand on the young mother's shoulder, only to gasp in surprise when his hand passed through her body instead of resting on something solid. "I see."

She was a illusion, but why was she here and for who's benefit. Then the floor started shaking. Milton was surprised in that the illusion was moving, not reacting to him but rather turning around with a frightened look on her face. Turning to face the same direction she had, Milton was surprised when he saw a sword made of various scrap metals welded together and super heated until it was red hot cut through the floor. The owner of that blade erupted from the floor in a shower of melted materials, a giant composed of bits of armor, parts of the school's foundation, and a chunk of wood here or there and all lit on fire.

"WHAT ON EARTH IS GOING ON HERE!?" Milton shouted, which seemed to get the giant's attention as a head which vaguely resembled a ball of flame turned to look at him.

" **Isn't that what I should ask you?** " A deep voice boomed from the head of the monster. " **After all, this is my bed room and you are not my type.** " Saying that, Milton was shield bashed out of his office that was apparently this thing's bed chambers and landed on the lawn while spitting blood. " **Now little snow white, where were we?** "

"No, no Blue Beard! GYAAAHHHAHA!" That ear piercing wail shrieked throughout the entire campus.

* * *

The student body was evacuated to the Girl's Dormitory, quite possible the only safe place left with all of those monsters running around. Mrs. Yaga was currently composing a spell to locate all of the missing students, the hero and magic caster students were split into search parties to go look for all of them. In the mean time Briar was looking through the history of Evil Magics text books for any explanation as to what has hit them. Apple and her cousin Ashlynn had joined in on the search for the missing students, utilizing several birds and other small woodland creatures to aid in their search.

"I swear, we should just demolish the whole place at this point." Ashlyn seethed in justified rage, not even a day since everyone got back from the impromptu vacation after the Jabberwocky incident, and this happens.

"If we can't stop these things then we might just have to." Mrs. Yaga stated as she punted off the third seemingly very important ancient leather bound book that failed to provide her information about their foe. It was at that point in time that Apple's phone started ringing, prompting her to take it out and answer it.

"Darling? Hang on I'll put you on speaker phone." Apple placed the phone on one of the tomes Baba Yaga had been searching through. "What happened? The last time we saw you, you guys were chasing after that crook that mutiliated Raven's dragons?"

"That was before the Evil Queen showed up and dropped a huge curse bomb on the place." Darling's voice echoed from the Mirror phone causing a number of students to gasp in concern. "She punted Duchess off somewhere, and the rest of us into Wonderland. Also, she told me to mention 'Sabrina's crucifixion.' I take it that's bad?"

"Hmm. So this is one of hers eh?" Mrs. Yaga stated scratching her chin.

"So I take it that you know what this is then?" Apple asked cocking a brow at her teacher.

"Sabrina's Crucifixion was a particularly nasty curse developed by the fourth individual to take on the 'Evil Queen' title, Sabrina Konigan. It repeats the same day of a particularly bloody battle that took them all the way to one of the capitals, with undead taking the role of the once living soldiers. She is the one we have to thank for the massive army of undead warriors defending the inner most part of Riordan." Riordan's defenses can be broken down into circles, if the outer circle relied on the magically altered beasts to protect it, then the inner circle relied on the specialized undead warriors to do the fighting at key choke points.

"As if that place didn't sound terrifying enough as it is." Daring commented prompting others to nod their heads in agreement.

"Alright so what are these things weakness?" Apple asked in a shrill voice.

"There aren't any." That bit stunned the entire class. "At least not the usual ones. So much about these things are top secret so it's hard to figure stuff out about them. We can however make some educated guesses about their weaknesses based on general information about what they are and how they were created. For instance, undead are normally weak against fire, but this curse uses fire magic as a power source, so since they already got that coursing through their veins we can assume that it'll be effectively useless against them. Mira and Daring have already reported that other common undead weaknesses like silver and healing potions can knock them down, but the nature of the curse means that they'll just resurrect in about a day, and it's better not to waste resources when we know that they'll just come back in a day." Mrs. Yaga explained scratching her chin. "Right now, it's a war of information gathering. We need to know everything we can about our enemy, only through that will we be able to find a weakness."

"If we can find out what battle these things are suppose to be recreating I bet we can find a way of beating them." Apple stated as she started pacing back and forth. "If this is some legendary battle, then I bet some really famous person died here. We should try to learn the names of the Draugrs."

"If that's your logic then you should focus on the Draug." Mrs. Yaga stated prompting Apple to look at her concerned.

"'Draug?'" Apple asked her face twisted in confusion.

"High tier warrior type undead. The general to the Draugrs, it'll be larger, more intelligent, more powerful and can assume multiple forms depending on the situation." Mrs. Yaga stated in a lecturer's tone.

"So a super Draugr then. Has anyone seen anything like that around the school?" Apple asked looking to the assembled group of students.

At that moment in time, a loud crash sound echoed through out the dorm, as Schlechtester's boot went through the door forcibly opening it in the process.

"Why did you break down the door!? I just had it painted!" An exasperated Mira shrieked looking rushing over to her mother.

"Hands are full." The Chem-Myth-Ry teacher stated revealing that she was supporting the weight of the heavily injured Milton.

"Well... lets get him inside." Mira helped her mother move the Headmaster onto the floor of the dorm room and started running a medical assessment of the headmaster.

"Several of his bones are broken and his lung has been pierced. What happened to you?" Mira asked cocking a brow at the Headmaster.

"I was attacked by a fire giant who appeared in my office." Milton winced as Mira set to work trying to fix his broken body.

"You didn't by chance catch it's name when it hit you did you?" Apple asked moving behind Mira.

"Yes, I did." Among other disturbing details that he would have to look into at a more convenient time. "The Draug's name is Blue Beard."

"Uh oh..." Briar stated, history books stacked to either side of her.

"Do we want to know?" Apple asked cocking a brow.

"The last commander of this base before it stopped being a base and was turned into a school." Briar stated pulling out a book and opening a page.

"Okay so who did him in?" Apple asked shrugging her shoulders.

"We don't know, when they found him he was torn to pieces and his army was gone. Someone slaughtered all of them." Briar explained showing the group a illustration of indiscriminate body parts.

" **RRRRWWWAAAAAARRRRR!** "

"I think we're going to find out who." Apple commented, shaking a little bit as the magical bombardment started getting closer to the school. "Can we contact Sabrina? She can probably revert her curse."

"No, she sacrificed her life to produce the curse in the first place, the fact that Morgan's still alive is proof of just how monstrously powerful she really is." Mrs. Yaga stated letting out a sigh. "I have to admit. Our odds are pretty bleak on this one."

"There is one way to contact her." Milton stated prompting the surprised student body to turn around and face him in shock.

* * *

The Legacy Orchard, near the end of the school year, this orchard, magically rooted to the Story Book of Legends, appears containing gifts from various fairy tale fore bearers to aid their descendants in their respective stories. Before that though it was a vault, made to house so many magical artifacts that something inside of it finally broke one day leading to this situation, that vault had been dragged out of whatever manner of alternate reality it spends most of it's time in and was now in the physical plain once more. Sparrow, their stealth expert, was leading a group consisting of Faybelle, who was using magic barriers to defend themselves from the incoming magical bombardment and Apple who was supporting the weight of the Headmaster. The constant magical bombardment was creating fox holes all over the courtyard, finding hiding places to hide from the undead monsters wasn't hard.

"Sabrina's inside of the book?" Apple asked surprised to Milton's earlier explanation.

"The Story Book of Legends takes a piece of everyone who signs it inside of itself. Sabrina is theoretically inside of the Story Book of Legends." Milton explained in a corrective tone of voice.

"Okay. So assuming that we make it inside of this building that theoretically has this back door into a apparently broken magical book that possibly has some remnant of this two hundred year old woman inside of it we then get a one in a hundred chance that that there's a slim possibility that we'll learn how to punt these S.O.B's back to whatever after life that they came from." Sparrow summarized looking around and determining the coast was clear for now. "Assuming that none of that happens and we instead fail miserably what do we do after that?" Sparrow asked, spotting one of his classmates in a far off tree and sniping a Draugr that was harassing her.

"Die." Milton stated in a manner of fact fashion.

"Fantastic." Faybelle stated rolling her eyes.

The trip over was comparatively easy, whatever manner of monster that was turning the Draugr into so many smoking craters was hunting them relentlessly. That also meant it was getting closer too, Faybelle could make out a vaguely humanoid figure floating in the sky as the source of the attacks, either Morgan had decided to double back and finish them off, or that was what killed all of these people, which meant it was going to kill them too.

"Can we step it up a little bit?" Breaking the lock on the vault was child's play for Sparrow, he might not have Blondie's knack with locks but this thing is a dinosaur compared to the modern day and age.

"Well it looks like a vault anyway." Sparrow commented looking inside at the vast array of items that had been carelessly thrown in. "But I don't see anything that looks like what you described."

"Give me a minuet." Milton held his hand out and it briefly glowed candle light yellow causing the back wall to take on the form of a huge doorway sized book that opened up. "The story book will only allow 'characters' from their respective stories to enter the appropriate area, there fore, to reach the 'Evil Queen' we will need 'Snow White.'" Immediately both Faybelle and Sparrow turned and looked at Apple.

"I get it I get it." Apple stated going towards the giant book door, only to be stopped by Faybelle.

"Raven keeps nothing from me." Faybelle growled in a low tone. "I don't know why you wanted in there, but if you do something stupid and you don't come out of there on your own, I will come and get you, and if you die, then I shall rain every violation I can think of down on your corpse, am I understood?" Apple gulped and nodded her head.

"At least I know that I won't be stuck in there forever." Apple stated summoning as much courage as possible.

"I am serious! That book is broken! Do you know what happens when you go inside of a broken book?" Faybelle asked her voice barely containing her rage.

"I guess I'm going to find out." Apple stated sounding nervous.

"While you're doing that, the old man and me will get the book back, it wouldn't be good if Ever After's future monarch is lost inside of that thing when it finally snaps." Apple nodded to Sparrow's words. With that the princess of Everafter entered into the keystone that holds the world together.

* * *

 **Author's Note** :

Zwei Eis: Thank you for saying so.

DJ: Thank you for saying so. I did. Anymore questions?

Wade: Well I had to do something with that little MacGuffin, the people holding onto it kept getting face punched. Phoenix only until Duchess turns back, and Morgan doesn't want the Djinn, think of it as a type of high capacity battery whereas the Obscuris is a nuclear reactor. But yes, it will not end well. Thank you for saying so!

Charlie: No it isn't. Morgan's been fighting tougher for the better part of two decades, Duchess needs to squeeze in some combat experience.


	54. Chapter 54

**Author's Note** : Not much to say this week, I'm fairly fixed on my idea for the end to this story now so all's that's left to do is write it. Read, Review favorite and enjoy!

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Chapter 54: You're my hero, Robin Hood

Apple wasn't entirely sure about what she was expecting when she entered a book full of fairy tales, but she was decently sure this wasn't it. Standing inside of what suspiciously looked like the headmaster's office, words were written on everything from the walls to the furniture. Everything that was there that is. As if the entire scene was merely stain on a window there were... cracks, gaps in the scenery, revealing when one looked through it not outside of the office or even outside of the school, but rather another dimension of some sort or another, composed of faded shades of blue. Perhaps most strangely of all, was who was sitting in the Headmaster's chair, for that was clearly not Milton Grimm, but rather Morgan Konigan, wearing a business woman's suit and working at a type writer.

"Raven's Mother!? What are you doing here!?" Morgan looked up from the type writer, revealing the word 'narrator' written across her face. "Your not Morgan." Apple noted realizing that there weren't any words written on her. "What are you then, are you like that person who Maddie switched with a while ago?"

"I'm a book not a person." 'Morgan' stated going back to the book.

"Why do you look like Raven's mother?" Apple asked turning her head in confusion.

"I look like the most recent guardian of the Book of Legends." The 'Book' explained not even looking at Apple.

"Then shouldn't that be Milton or his brother?" Apple asked looking confused.

"You're thinking of the current guardian's father Milton, the role was meant to be passed onto her, but she refused to complete the transition, probably explaining your confusion."

"Milton's Morgan's...!?" Apple was about to say something angry, but breathed in and out calming herself in the process. "I don't have time for this. I need to be somewhere, there's a curse trying to destroy the school and the answer is suppose to be inside of my story."

"Watch your step." The 'Book' pointed into a room Apple thought to be the study.

"The curse affecting the Headmaster's brother, it was hidden inside of the book." Apple started to explain but was cut off.

"Complete your story, and you will find it." The Book stated still ignoring Apple's presence by as much as possible.

It wasn't long though that Apple found her first obstacle, a ravine that had formed from the cracks in the dimension.

"Well, here's hoping you guys can fix the book."

* * *

A arrow attached to the end of a rope was fired into the Headmaster's Balcony, and a bow was used to zipline into that balcony. What surprised Sparrow more then that someone thought of doing it but that he couldn't, use the Zipline that is, it was some kind of illusion.

"Huh. I was wondering about that." The curse is meant to repeat the same day over and over again, the undead are meant to serve as stand ins for the people who died on that day, the question was then what about the people who got out of this nightmare pit alive, the obvious answer was that illusions were being used to fill in those particular gaps. The real question was how useful would they be, and perhaps more importantly, who this guy was, dressed in black clothing and wearing a hood. Perhaps less concerning then the man in black who was content to hang from the balcony was the one standing inside of the Headmaster's office, though Sparrow felt hesitant to call him a man. "So that's gotta be the Draug, now how do I get inside." Sparrow initially planned to do the same thing as the man in black, but he ran the risk of the Draug noticing them, then again that guy got out of this mess in one piece. "Decisions, decisions." Sparrow went through his goody bag, and pulled out a potion arrow filled with red liquid, and promptly notched it on his bow. "Alright you ugly butt pain. Lets do this."

The Front door wasn't locked, and the Draugr's weren't much of a match against Mira's healing potions, so getting to the headmaster's office was the easy part, though Sparrow wished he hadn't when he looked inside.

"Oh wow, this guy's got some messed up hobbies." That was putting it mildly, hanging from hooks in the sealing, one might at first assume that Blue Beard was keeping women's dresses in his room. Then Sparrow saw dried, mummified flesh sticking out of it the dresses, breasts, feet, hands, small amounts of black smoke were coming out of the top of those headless bodies. "The heck is...?" Then the Draug, Blue Beard, adjusted what could have been his belt, and what resembled a pipe came out of his groin... "MMM!" Sparrow dumped out a flower pot and used it to muffle the sound of his own vomit.

" _Sweet lord I'm never gonna be able to un-see that!_ " Sparrow loudly thought as he peered around the corner and saw that the Draug finish with the corpse hanging from the ceiling.

" **Hello little Robin Hood.** " Immediately Sparrow ducked back behind the corner, thinking he had been found out. " **Came to rescue that whore's girl?** "

"That's rich coming from you Blue Beard!" The man in black climbed up the balcony and stood on the railing, the pregnant girl standing in the corner of the room looked confused on what she should do, as made evident by the way that she looked between her captor and would be rescuer. "So what shall I remove first? Your eyes, your balls? Or should I just start taking you apart joint by joint you god forsaken piece of garbage?"

While Sparrow found his ancestor and this monster snarling at each other fascinating, he still had work to do, he saw the stand that the Book of Legends was kept on and the dusty tome in question. Blue Beard fortunately was content to immediately close the distance with the hooded rogue in question bull rushing him and the both of them going straight out the window.

"Well that was easier then I expected." Sparrow immediately went up to the case in question and removed the book. "I'm traumatized for life, but it was easier then I expected." As Sparrow was about to leave, he looked over to the pregnant girl who was looking down on the two individuals fighting in the courtyard. "Oi can you hear me?" Sparrow went up behind the pregnant girl and waved his hand in front of her face. "So the illusions can't see us, and we can't touch them."

" **RAAAAAGGGHHH!** " Sparrow looked over the balcony and saw his ancestor put arrows into the shoulder of Blue Beard.

"But they can touch those undead monsters? That's good to know." Saying that Sparrow took off down the hallways.

* * *

Apple long ago decided that she didn't have the time to waste waiting for the book to be fixed, lord knows they've waited long enough for that stupid thing to get fixed. Instead, Apple forced the book shelf off to the inside into the doorway of the study and pushed it over, one loud crash later and Apple had a bridge across the dimensional gap allowing her to walk across it into the mirror. After forcing her way through the film like mirror Apple found herself somewhere else, the courtyard of a castle town, and yet so obviously not, none of the people had any faces and the cracks indicating the presence of the broken book were everywhere including on some of the people.

"Where is this place? This should be the start of the Snow White story."

"Hear he Hear he ladies and Gentlemen!" A man walked onto the balcony of the castle, his arms spread into the air, and once Apple had her glasses on she could read the words written across his chest, 'the Good King.'

"So that's the original Evil Queen's husband?" Apple asked keeping her glasses aligned with her hand.

"You could say that." Apple turned around to face a familiar sight.

"Baba?" Apple asked staring in shock at the appearance of Raven's grand mother, thought it took a minuet for her to catch on it didn't seem to matter to the story book character.

"The book updates itself with every new person to sign it, didn't the Narrator explain this to you already?" The 'Evil Queen' as noted by the line written across her chest, explained in a monotone voice. Speaking of her chest, she wasn't exactly wearing a outfit worthy of a Queen, in fact it was much closer to the monk's robe that Mira was wearing when they first met.

"So Morgan never signed the book?" Apple asked cocking a brow at the character opposite to her.

"The most recent person to sign the book simply reads 'Screw you Old Man!'" The 'Evil Queen' explained with a casual shrug.

"Figures." Apple could only shake her head in approval.

"If you're done now I do have to get going." The Evil Queen stated as she moved to walk passed Apple.

"Ah no! No! We need your help actually." The Evil Queen cocked a vaguely interested brow at Apple. "We need information from one of the past Evil Queen's about a curse she created: Sabrina's Crucifixion."

"That curse was created to protect a vital choke point within our nation's border's I won't divulge that information easily." The Evil Queen stated narrowing a glare.

"I know I know but some friends of mine need the information to beat Blue Beard." That surprised the Evil Queen, much to Apple's confusion. "Did you know him?"

"If you knew anything about that name you would not bring it up so casually." The Evil Queen closed her eyes, breathed in, and opened them again. "See this story to the end, then you will have your answers. Now if you excuse me, you're holding up the story." Apple looked around, no one was moving, like time had stopped, like the story had been interrupted, like a child had talked during story time and the story teller had stopped to avoid having to speak over her.

"Sorry." Apple stepped aside, and the Evil Queen had changed. It wasn't a significant way, but gone was the lifeless hollow look one could expect from the embodiment of a stack of paper, now was the angered face of someone who was wronged and set out to correct it, pushing her way to the front of the crowd while radiating bloodlust. Funny how much Jadis looked like her daughter when she was mad.

"My wife has been exposed as a witch! As such she has been punished appropriately." The 'Good King' a nickname that Apple quickly realized was massively inappropriate, revealed a severed head in his hands and promptly dropped it off of his balcony, bouncing a couple of times before stopping at the feet of the 'Evil Queen.' Said future monarch, fell to her knees tears coming down from her eyes as she made a effort to use her hand to stop her tears. "As such, I suddenly find myself single and in need of a new wife." The woman in question rose from her knees, a combination of her storming forward and the crowd backing away from the castle isolated the woman. Perhaps sensing someone was looking at him, the Good King looked down and saw his future wife approaching the castle. "Ah perfect a volunteer, guards! Escort that one inside!" Apple had followed the Evil Queen, even as the guard's seized her by both of her arms, confused as to what was happening.

"I don't understand, who is this woman your sister?" Apple asked examining the head that the Good King had so carelessly tossed away.

"That is the first part of your curse." The Evil Queen explained as time immediately stood still, and indeed examining the head Apple opened her mother's mouth and found a tiny piece of paper inside.

* * *

It felt like it had been a long time since Milton had seen the book, so many crazy things had happened since the last time he took it out of it's case to examine it. Every detail was exactly as he remembered it: Every page was immaculate, it's bindings perfect, the maroon leather enchanted to remain so fresh it even still had the same new book smell to it, it's golden corners shone with it's own internal light source and a pink lock shaped jewel had been embedded inside of the hardened cover of the book. It was amazing to the point of stupefying, it was so obvious that he was kicking himself for not realizing it sooner, all along the answer had been staring him right in his face and now he held it in his hands, the answer to all of their problems.

"Headmaster? Yo Headmaster?" Sparrow asked waving his hand in front of the Headmaster's face. "Is there a problem?"

"I have bad news and good news young Mr. Sparrow." The Headmaster trembled with anticipation, whether that anticipation was from fear or excitement was hard for his students to understand. Finally, after several moments for Milton staring at the book like he was looking into the face of a god the question was asked.

"Exactly what is this news headmaster?" Blondie asked her instincts as a reporter demanding that she ask the question.

"Firstly, this is not the Story Book of Legends." Milton's voice was filled with a maddened joy that his students, indeed perhaps no one bar a very few, have ever heard in the entirety of their lives.

"What!? I risked my neck to get that thing and you're only telling me now I got the wrong one!?" Sparrow was understandably enraged, not only because of what he told his classmates, but from the horrific sight he had witnessed which irredeemably marred that office and scarred him for life.

"Oh no you didn't Mr. Hood. You have gotten something much better." That Old Man's very clever daughter had all of them fooled from the beginning, she must have hidden the real book in his office and replaced it with this immaculate fake. She had laid the groundwork, for reasons that only she would ever know, but now he was going to seize on the opening she had created. Today he would at last make things right. "Young Mr. Sparrow, no, the Great Hero Sparrow Hood. With the power of this book, we are going to fix this broken world. Tonight!"

* * *

 **Review Section** :

Zwei Eis: Let's just say for now that if she wasn't off of fairy tales for life before, she will be after this.

DJ: After everything she's been through it wouldn't surprise me. The ritual was for casting the curse that summoned the Dragir's to the school. I intend to, thank you for saying so.

Charlie: That's the great thing about being constantly put through apocalyptic crisis's you don't have time to think about your own personal crisis's. Fairly easy once the figure out what they got and who they're up against.

Wade: You can drop the air quotes, those two are pretty damn nasty. It usually does.


	55. Chapter 55

**Author's Note** : Not much to say today, started a new story yesterday and now I gotta do some writing for it, Read, Review, Favorite and Enjoy!

* * *

Chapter 54: Time to Make Things Right, Grimm

Mrs Yaga was overseeing the process of drawing a large magic circle on the floor of the Girl's lounge, aided by Duchess who had a piece of chalk in hand, numerous students meanwhile stood on the sidelines with mixed looks of interest and confusion.

"For the record, I disapprove. I strongly disapprove." Mrs. Yaga stated crooked nose pointed straight at Milton in sharp derision.

"Noted. Do you have a better idea?" To Milton's reply Mrs. Yaga returned to looking down at the floor.

"What is it that we're doing any way?" Sparrow asked scratching the side of his head.

Milton was about to answer when they were interrupted by a loud crashing sound from up above.

"GAH! ICE! THIS ONE SHOOTS ICE!" Hopper's voice screeched from above.

"Miss Ella, Mr. Charming." Milton stated expectantly. Wordlessly, Dexter and Ashlyn, with tired and sore looks, went up the stairs to subdue the dragon chicks who had just woke up.

"OH GOD! OH GOD! COTTON CANDY! THIS ONE SNEEZES COTTON CANDY!" Hopper wailed as if to hurry the people sent to help him along.

"Why did we make him keep a eye on them again?" Duchess asked listening to the sound of Hopper's pitiful wails. They found her unconscious in the woods a couple of minuets ago and Daring carried her back to the dormitory.

"Spending some time with some amphibians will allow him the chance to expand the power and utility of his knack, according to Mrs. Yaga." Faybelle stated smirking knowingly.

"You just like to make us suffer don't you?" Duchess asked glaring hatefully at the old crone.

"Hardship is fuel for the soul." Mrs. Yaga replied un-apologetically. "Now are you going to explain what we're doing or am I?"

"As I was saying. This is a bit of dark magic, or rather something based on it, which transfers the soul of one being into another identical being. In this case we're going to siphon off the contents of the broken Book of Legends and use it to fill in this copy that Morgan was so generous in providing us." Milton explained gesturing to the book on the floor, surrounded by magic symbols. "In this way, we will fix the Book of Legends."

"Don't we kinda need the actual Story Book of Legends for that?" Daring asked showing one of his rare moments of wisdom.

"Not if we destroy the original book." Milton replied in a bold tone. Wordlessly, Schleschtester picked up one of her blasting wands and made for the exit of the lounge. "Please wait until after we're done our preparations before you destroy what's left of my office."

"I'm indestructible, I can afford to go early and get into position." Schlechtester stated kicking down the door, again.

"Speaking of are we sure we wanna mess around with the book while Apple's inside of it?" Briar asked watching as the mirror woman left for the office.

"We have no choice I'm afraid." Milton stated holding his chin in his hand. "With the book in the state that it is the possibility is extremely high that Ms. White will be unable to leave the book until it is fixed."

"One of those damned if we do and damned if we don't type situations." Sparrow commented a dissatisfied look on his face.

"Hello everyone! We got the old man's brother!" Kitty shouted from the doorway, at her side was none other than Giles Grim.

"Greetings fellow spawn of the Old Dog." Giles stated waving his hand in the air. "When the armor and bones started to appear in the judge's yard I came out from my floor door as quickly as I could." Numerous eyes were directed towards Milton demanding a explanation.

"It's good to see you're well brother." Milton stated letting out a tired sigh.

"Kitty where's Darling?" Daring asked walking up to Kitty and grabbing her by her sides.

"The Dark One tied her up with her sword and threw her down the well, the Heart Princess is trying to turn the sword into rubber and get it off of her." Kitty explained in true wonderlandian fashion.

"Does someone know what she's saying?" Daring asked looking around the room.

"Darling's in Wonderland again, Lizzie is trying to use riddlish to break the sword wrapped around her body. Knuckle-drager." Faybelle explained with a eye roll.

* * *

Apple had to tip toe her way up here, on several different occasions she had to get the Evil queen to chuck door's, cabinets and furniture over the cracks that had appeared in the book and create a safe pathway for her. What Apple was greeted with fulfilled expectations, but that didn't mean that it was any less pleasant to look at.

"So the king killed your wife, and you're okay with it?" Apple asked sitting on a toilet, the Evil Queen had been stripped down and was being scrubbed clean by several servants, whatever hole she was living in bathing didn't look to be a big part of day to day life there.

"You have failed to realize something little girl: it's easiest to kill someone when they have been stripped naked and enthralled in distraction." The Evil Queen replied in a lecturer's tone.

"Right. I won't have any part of that thank you." Apple stated no intention on watching what amounted to a snuff film, she's already seen enough heads thrown off of balcony's for one day.

"In that case I'll retrieve the next piece of the curse for you from his corpse." Saying that the Evil Queen got out of the tub and was promptly escorted to another room, on her way out though Apple saw the familiar form of several scars going down her back.

"Hmm. I wonder if all the Evil Queens have scars like that, is it some sort of ascension ritual?" Apple put hand to chin as she thought about what she has seen. "This isn't like the story mother use to tell me either. I wonder how the truth got distorted like this. The Headmaster said that there was a huge war going on at this time, did Raven's ancestors lose? Is that why they're made out to be the bad people?"

"No." The Evil Queen appeared behind Apple, dressed in a monk's robe and holding out the next piece of Giles Curse. "Our mistake in that regard was that we told the truth, but our enemies lied to your people, and we let them." The Evil Queen walked out of the bathing room and Apple followed her.

"It was a mistake to tell the truth?" Apple asked following The Evil Queen.

"The number of individuals who can use magic has always been proportional to the number of people in total, or in other words the number of people who can't cast magic." The Evil Queen stated leading Apple away.

"One out of ten I think I remember Faybelle saying." Apple stated resting her chin in the palm of her hand.

"Sounds about right." The Evil Queen seemed to resume the story after they had arrived at a particular room, she initially was going to walk past it but heard something crying inside of the room, and a woman who was attending to the occupant. Walking into the room unseen, the Evil Queen saw that there was a infant inside of the cradle. "Who's child is this?" Surprised, the woman turned around. She initially was going to go scream for help but was stopped when the Evil Queen grabbed her by her throat and held her up in the air. "Whose. Child. Is this?"

"Gak! The Good King!" The Evil Queen carelessly threw the woman to the ground and prepared to leave, but was stopped when she saw something in the cradle with the child. The Evil Queen bent down and picked up a doll that had been left in cradle with the infant. "I made this for ours." Next the Evil Queen took a look at the child, at her skin as white as the fresh fallen snow. "Huu. Great. Well that explains it."

"What? What is it?" Apple asked rushing into the room.

"This is Snow White, she is the daughter of the former owner of the head you saw the Good King discard earlier." The Evil Queen explained, cradling the child that was suppose to be hers. "You probably don't know this, but if a monarch got a daughter instead of a son as their first born back in those days, it was common practice to label the mother a witch and have her executed and the daughter either executed or sold off to some piece of garbage noble."

"I... I see. So this is what he meant." The wife of the Evil Queen had been murdered for having the gall to give birth to Snow White. Apple suddenly felt very guilty about her family legacy.

Shortly there after the Evil Queen went to work, she went back to the Good King's bed chambers and took his head from his body. She used her magic remake and dye the clothes of the Good King into the black dress of a queen and the dark robe of a master spell caster all in one. She marched out in front of the same faceless crowd as before, on the same balcony from which the head of her wife had been so carelessly disposed.

"I am the Evil Queen!" Saying that the Evil Queen threw the severed head of the former Good King to the crowd. "And I am Enemy to everyone _he_ has _ever_ called friend...!" Sudden the crowd broke out in a huge uproar, cheering and clapping their hands for the so called Queen of Evil. "...Well that was easier then I expected, I wrote a big speech and everything."

"Wow... they really hated him didn't they?" Apple asked looking surprised.

"He and the numerous yes men under him who gave the 'Good King' his amusing little nickname made sport of raping, impregnating and then murdering these people's wives, mothers, sisters and daughters." Sometimes it was hard to think of the Evil Queen as simply another character in the book, the way she switched between rage, sadness and complete apathy when she told the story of her life and the numerous atrocities committed to her, it was exactly like Raven. "Yes they hated him and all who were associated with him."

"So you were talking about the number of magic people to non people?" Apple asked looking confused.

"Initially we assumed it was a matter of blood, genetics is the term that you use in the modern times. This is because we assumed that were were like the fairies, able to generate our own internal supply of magical energy from light. The reason why the number of people who could use magic rose with our population is because things rise as the population grows, such as food consumption, amount of territory we took up. When the number of people who couldn't use magic took a sudden and noticeable drop, a large number of the people who could use magic suddenly couldn't anymore." The Evil Queen explained walking down the hallways.

"Wait? How did the population suddenly drop?" Apple asked a disturbing revelation upon her.

"I killed them." Suddenly the entire castle was wreathed in flame and began shaking.

"What in the world?" The Evil Queen waved her arm over Apple and a purple layer of magic coated Apple's body. The stone of the castle began collapsing and being sucked away like it was being sucked down a toilet, and Apple and the Evil Queen went with it.

* * *

Milton was laying down on the floor surrounded by a magic circle, the sound of a explosion earlier signaled that everyone's favorite lunatic had succeeded in her mission to destroy the original Book of Legends. However more important then that was that the sound of fighting had stopped, who or whatever had been raining down magical hell on the school had suddenly stopped their attack, why they didn't know. But that was the reason why Kitty had run off a while ago, between her ability to turn invisible, move at super human speeds and communicate with the narrator she seemed to be a ridiculously over powered scout, and now she was back.

"That crazy woman is craftier then we thought she was. She blocked out the Narrator using that damnable Obscuris." Kitty cursed crossing her legs and sitting in frustration.

"She can do that?" Sparrow asked gaping with shock.

"If anyone could." Hunter piped up off to the side.

"Does this have to do with why death stopped raining down from the sky?" Sparrow asked looking up in the air, the fiery fog was thick in the air but magic spells had stopped.

"What makes you say that?" Hunter asked cocking a brow suspiciously.

"Down there." Sparrow directed the group's attention to the Draugr's below, there weren't as many as there were this morning but the ones that were left were fighting with each other. "These things are suppose to be acting out their deaths right? What happens when the thing that is suppose to kill them doesn't then?"

"They turn violent." That wasn't Hunter's expert opinion, but rather just his observation. "If the thing that has been slaughtering the undead left and right has stopped then what happens when these things revive themselves tomorrow?"

"Go get Mrs. Yaga." Sparrow stated a note of urgency in his voice. Hunter nodded his head and ran down the stairs while Sparrow got out his phone and hit a number of his speed dial. "Let's see how smart the Evil Queen really is." Sparrow opened a face chat on his phone, a well manicured purple nail directed the phone at Morgan and the being she was conversing with, Raven was smart enough to hide her phone from her mother.

" **You seem to believe I have the ability to help you.** " She, they thought it was she, was a undead of some kind. She wore clothing made from grass turf of some kind, boards were nailed to her arms and back and iron chains were wrapped around her body, the only thing that they could make out that definitively belonged to her was her skull, missing it's jaw with a crown of tree roots and amber shards around her forehead.

"I need information not your help Grimhilde." Morgan stated in a impatient tone of voice.

"Hello there pretty lady." Sarcastically muttering that, Sparrow used the video chat to take a picture of the the thing that Morgan was talking to.

Unfortunately Raven had neglected to disable the flash on her camera, Morgan notice the picture being taken. Morgan walked over to the camera and picked it up looking Sparrow directly in the eye.

"Nice try brat." Morgan put the phone down on a rock, followed shortly thereafter by picking up a large stone and slamming it down on the phone. Sparrow ran down the stairs, ignored the variety of dragon breath attacks that were spilling out of Raven and Apple's room, and slid down the stairs into the lobby.

"Mrs. Yaga! I video chatted with Raven!" Mrs. Yaga turned her attention to Sparrow as he waved his mirror phone around. "Her mom kidnapped her and she's talking to some kind of butt ugly Undead." Sparrow held up his phone to show Mrs. Yaga, who had a displeased look on her face.

"Well that explains what's been bombing the school with magic spells. You didn't happen to catch it's name did you?" Mrs. Yaga asked tilting her head off to the side.

"Yeah, the crazy lady trying to get us all killed called her 'Grimhilde.'" Sparrow stated looking right proud of himself, right up until he saw the horrified look on Mrs. Yaga's face.

"Oh dear. I was wondering whatever happened to her." Mrs. Yaga stated with a defeated look on her face. "I kinda doubted that falling off of a cliff would ever do in the first 'Evil Queen.'"

* * *

 **Author's Note** :

Zwei Eis: Amazing what adrenaline can do for you.

DJ: The matter is rather complicated, more than needing people to continuously feed into the book it needs someone to stabilize that swirling nightmare of curses that been building up inside of that thing for the past three hundred years.

Wade: The Truth can be a lot stranger than fiction. Let's just say for now that if he does this he isn't going to get the chance to make things right.

Charlie: Don't be so sure.


	56. Chapter 56

**Author's Note** : Moving forward a little now, in case you haven't noticed by now we'll be focusing on Apple and Co's adventure with fairy tales and the undead. We'll get to Raven and Morgan's adventures at a later date. So for now, Read, Review, Favorite and Enjoy!

* * *

Chapter 56: I am Not Snow White

Sparrow, as well as a great many students were staring in shock mouth's agape at Baba Yaga who had just said something spectacular, something that she would not be able to take back, not now not ever.

"I'm sorry but could you repeat that?" Sparrow asked on the behalf of the rest of the students.

"The undead monster who has been bombarding the school is the original Evil Queen Grimhilde Konigan." Mrs. Yaga repeated in a annoyed tone of voice.

"Yeah we got that part but... are you sure?" Sparrow asked his face scrunched in confusion.

"Ignoring the fact that they have the same name in the same time period, look at the photo." Mrs. Yaga held up Sparrow's phone with the picture of Morgan and the creature that she had been talking to. "Doesn't she look familiar?" When you ignore the fact that the Undead was mostly dressed in improvised clothes, that length of branches wrapped around her head looked like a crown, and that mass of grass which had been torn off the lawn and woven into clothes looked like a dress or a robe. More than that, that robe was tied with rusty old chains and she had boards nailed down to her body, like someone wanted to make sure that she would stay down, even if she came back as a undead. Unfortunately it seems that they failed miserably in that regard. "You understand now don't you?" Mrs. Yaga stated in a wise tone of voice. "All of the evidence only makes sense, the power that matches Morgan and her daughter, the great length's that she was put through to ensure that she wouldn't get back up again after she was put down, her appearance reminiscent of a queen of the undead, the time period this place must have come from." As if to emphasize the point, Mrs. Yaga pointed to the figure Morgan was talking to in the picture. "The only logical explanation is that this person is the original Evil Queen."

"Well we're screwed." Sparrow stated letting out a sigh.

"If someone like that has teamed up with Queen Crazy then we should seriously consider running away." Kitty pointed one of her hands outside a window. "Most of the bone and armors have been wiped out already, and the rest aren't feeling so well." Indeed, the armored undead were wandering aimlessly fighting among themselves having outlived their role in their story. "I bet we can sneak right passed them."

"Don't count on it." Briar was sitting at the back of the lounge, her head was slumped over for a while now, so everyone just assumed that she had fallen asleep again, but it looked like she had been in some pretty deep thought. "Those things are just like us aren't they? They're stuck in their story, and without it they've become something different, more dangerous." Briar looked up to face the group. "Saying that these things are useless without their stories is the same thing as saying we're useless without our stories. The way I see it, we have too options, mutually assured destruction, or we fight." The image of a person that Briar admired appeared in her mind, backed by the looming silhouettes of those who are not willing to take no for a answer. "We fight for the right to live the way that we choose, we fight like Raven."

"Keep it in your head little ones." Giles stated sitting in the chair next to Milton, a good sized chunk of the transfer ceremony had already been completed. "We cannot abandon my other half and the young talker of animals who holds the secrets of our enemies."

"A good speech. Now if I could direct you people to our one saving grace." Mrs. Yaga held up Sparrow's phone again. "Our biggest enemies, Blue Beard and Grimhilde are dead already." They died here, if they wait long enough then they will be killed off, if they're lucky, then that means that they might even kill each other. "Anyone want to find out how they died?"

* * *

It took Apple a while to realize that she had been knocked out, when she woke up she found that she was back outside of the castle. Someone was using their lap as a pillow for her and Apple got back into a sitting position after a few moments.

"Evil Queen?" Apple asked expecting the familiar form of the woman who has been guiding her through the madness of this book.

"Her name is Grimhilde." A all too familiar voice stated in a sour tone as if offended. Looking around Apple saw herself, staring at herself with a displeased look on her face.

"You're me!" Apple stated in shock. "I am Snow White." Indeed, like the other 'characters' that Apple had encountered inside of the book thus far the doppelganger in front of her had her name, 'Snow White,' written in clear print on her, in her case her arm. "That is the name you people gave me, though I prefer it in my native tongue Schnee Weiss."

"Weiss? That's my mom's name." Apple stated looking surprised.

"White White." Schnee had to inhaled for a moment before exhaling for another. "Mother I've given birth to a legacy of air heads." Schnee opened her eyes to glare at Apple. "What are you doing here?" Schnee less asked and more demanded.

"Ah, a curse is threatening my friend's lives, we think one of the previous Evil Queen's know how to break it." Apple explained simply.

"Cute. Finish the damn story already so that I can get this latest round of hell over with." Schnee stated in a threatening tone of voice.

"The Ev..." Apple was going to say the Evil Queen but she immediately stopped herself, she had to remember that before she was a character in a book she was a actual person. "Grimhilde was a lot more helpful then this."

"'Grimhilde' died before she ever got the chance to sign the book, she died over three hundred years ago and not one single part of her survived. What you were talking to is the idea of the 'Evil Queen' that you people have built up in your heads over the past three centuries. The answer to all of your problems, the great enemy that by defeating you will be guaranteed happiness for the rest of your lives." Schnee only seemed to get angrier as the conversation progressed.

"You sound... rather mad about this." Apple stated with a sad tone in her voice.

"I have been trapped inside of this eternal hell for three hundred years, stuck in a cycle repeating the same mistakes over and over again with the same stupid doe eyed look on my face watching as a result of my actions the person I loved and cared about most in the world dies over and over again, for the privilege I must experience the same agonizing torment over and over again while watching you people glorify this miserable rotten life I have lived." The look in Schnee's eyes was someone who was broken, and had been broken, over and over again, and had simply reached the point where they had given up on ever being treated differently. "Just a peak of curiosity, someone caused a bit of damage to the book a few decades ago. I'm wonder how that was going? I had assumed that when the book collapse in on itself a while ago that it had finally died I would be released from this living Hell. But now that does not seem to be the case."

"Oh. Ah..." Apple kinda felt bad about the role she played in accelerating the book's repair now. "Before I came in here, the others thought it would be bad if I got trapped inside of a broken book, so they started looking for a way to fix it." Apple took a look at her surroundings, the cracks which had plagued the book and some times harassed her path through the book were gone. "By the looks of things, I think they succeeded."

"Pity, I was looking forward to dying." Schnee stated letting out a resigned sigh. "Alright time to get this latest round of hell over with."

Schnee's facial features suddenly did a one eighty turn from a jaded and cynical young woman to a happy wide eyed teenager. The scene that followed played out nothing like Apple had imagined it had when her mother told it to her when she was a child, a charming prince visited the castle of the Evil Queen one day on business, played in this case by a facilely of Daring Charming and a entourage of faceless extras. Based on the look on her face, Schnee was smitten in a instant.

"Blue Beard." Grimhilde stated in a displeased tone of voice, appearing from within the castle itself. "I thought we agreed that you were going to meet my forces at the border."

"I thought a immediate face to face meeting was necessary." Blue Beard stated shrugging his shoulders. "Your mirrors are... unsettling."

"Very well." Grimhilde gave a roll of her eyes and used her staff to direct the group inside of the castle.

"Blue Beard?" Apple asked her face scrunched in confusion.

"Your Prince Charming is Blue Beard?" Schnee's face twisted in horrific anger.

"HE IS NOT MINE!" Schnee spun around and grabbed Apple by her collar and slammed her against a wall. "And if you have even the slightest comprehension of who you are talking about you will never mention that name in front of me again!"

"I'm thinking that I don't..." For one thing this reaction was very different from what Apple would expect of talking about someone's true love.

"Then how do you know that name?" Schnee asked lowering Apple down to face to face.

"One of your step mother's descendants dragged his soul back to the surface and sent him to kill all of my friends using a curse invented by one of Grimhilde's earlier descendants." Wordlessly, Schnee dropped Apple to the ground.

"Speak to my mother's mirror, if it's one of their curses then that is where you will find the answers that you seek." With that the propagator of the White family line turned her back on her distant descendant.

"Wait!" Only to be stopped by Apple once more. "One of the Grim's hid something inside of the book in pieces, it cursed his son and I need it to uncurse him."

"There are many things hidden inside of the book, why should I help you?" Schnee asked glaring down at Apple, who could only reply with silence. After all how can she ask for a favor from someone whose misery has fueled the thing that has held the world together for three hundred years. "Find your damn curses by yourself." Saying that Schnee apparently went back into 'Doe Eyed Princess mode' and reentered the castle, Apple soon following behind her.

"Schnee, go to your room." Grimhilde stated in a uncompromising tone.

"But mother!?" Schnee replied in a whiny sort of tone.

"Go to your room." Schnee gave in to her mother's strict tone and went up the stairs to her room, Blue Beard watching her all the way along.

"So when are you going to marry off your daughter to me?" Blue Beard asked a look of pure lust on his face.

"When she is of appropriate marriage age I will allow her to date, she will form a meaningful relationship and then marry at a time of her choosing." Grimhilde stated in a uncompromising tone of voice. "Preferably with someone who is not ten years older than her." Blue Beard simply shrugged his shoulders as he got down to business.

Meanwhile Apple sneaked into Grimhilde's study where she saw a full length mirror leaning up against the wall.

"Uh... Mirror Mirror on the wall..."

"Oh great." Suddenly the familiar form of Schlechtester appeared in the mirror. "One of you again."

"Uh... say what?" Apple asked legitimately looking taken aback.

"Lemme guess, one of Grimm's minions?" The Magic Mirror stated rolling her eyes. "Please inform that old man that I have no interest in helping a Grimm, now nor ever." The Magic Mirror stated in a tone filled with hatred.

"What makes you think that the Headmaster sent me?" Apple asked legitimately intimidated by the mirror's glare.

"That stupid rhyme was _their_ invention!" The Mirror snapped eyes glowing with a deep seated rage. "The men who demonized my master!"

"The first Grimm brothers." Apple stated eyes going wide with realization. "It's become quite clear to me that certain embellishments have been made with the Book of Legends. I'd like to know the truth now. I'm up to when Schnee first meets Blue Beard."

"Don't say I didn't warn you. Tell me something how does your society feel about rapists and serial killers?" The mirror asked checking for imaginary dirt underneath illusionary finger tips.

"I'm going to regret asking that aren't I?" Apple asked looking up at the mirror rather dejected.

"Oh I hope so." Suddenly the image of the person within the mirror disappear, in her place Apple was greeted with the sight inside of a tomb of some kind. Over all the tomb seemed to be quite lovingly preserved, though Apple found her eyes on the naked form of Daring, thrusting his hips back and forth. Apple found herself momentarily confused by the image, she knew what that action meant but didn't know why Blue Beard was doing it there, until that is she spotted the headless mummified corpse of a woman laid out in front of him.

"MMM!" Apple immediately went for the nearest window and emptied her stomach contents over it.

"Good to know common decency is still a thing three hundred years from now." Apple sluggishly made her way back to the mirror and pulled over a chair so that she could sit down in front of it.

"Can you just... tell me what happens next instead of showing it?" Apple asked looking like she still might be a little sick.

"Blue Beard's pent up lust didn't stop with my master's wife, not five minuets after he finished buttoning up his trousers did he proceed to seduce her daughter, young Schnee then innocent in the ways of men fell prey to his blatant lust. By morning he had fled these lands and she was with his child." The mirror stated in a lecturer's tone of voice.

"What happened next? In the version I recall Snow White had been taken out to the woods by the queen's huntsman to be killed, based on what I've seen that was a lie." And it was Snow White too, a fictional character based on a the life and misery of one Schnee Weiss, not the actual person herself, it was important that Apple keep the two separate inside of her head because they were vastly different individuals.

"When Grimhilde discovered her fourteen year old daughter's pregnancy she immediately demanded the location of Blue Beard so that she can have him take responsibility, I instead showed her the violation of her wife's corpse he performed. After that she loudly declared in detail her plans to hunt down and horrifically maim the person in question. Schnee, head over heels for the man and ignorant to the violation of her mother, grabbed the fastest drake she could get her hands on and ran off for his lands. Grimhilde hired a mercenary, a local self proclaimed monster hunter to chase her down."

"The Huntsman, that I remember from the story." Apple stated snapping her fingers.

"Do you now?" The Magic Mirror clapped her hands together, suddenly Apple felt like she hit fast forward on her mirror pad.

In the next room Grimhilde and Blue Beard talked in indecipherable chipmunk while moving around the room at blurring speeds before parting ways with the coming of night. When morning came seconds later Grimhilde was screeching at the top of her lungs and stormed into her study demanding to know where Blue Beard was, was shown the sight of him violating her wife's corpse, before she blew a hole into the nearest wall and storming off, a second clap of imaginary hands ended the movie on fast forward snapping Apple to attention.

"I'd follow her if I was you." The Mirror intoned in a surprisingly helpful tone of voice.

Apple quickly chased after Grimhilde into the castle's throne room, there Grimhilde was sitting on her throne, her posture and way she simply owned the look invoked in Apple's mindset the image of a supreme ruler and she found herself resisting the urge to bow.

"I will be brief hunter." Apple turned around to face the Huntsman, played in this instance by Hunter Huntsman, one of Daring's classmates in the hero course and boyfriend to her cousin Ashlynn. "My daughter has had her heart stolen and thusly has fled into dangerous territory chasing after it." Grimmhilde steeple her fingers together and glared into the Huntsman's eyes. "I don't know you but I do know your reputation, anyone who can go toe to toe with a Ulfheonar should find little difficulty disposing of such creatures. Bring her home to me."

"It shall be done my Queen." The Huntsman stated in a cocky tone of voice. Grimhilde didn't notice because she let out a sigh of relief and entered deep thought about some topic or another, but the Huntsman stumbled as he turned around and left for parts unknown.

"Oh that's not good." Apple went to chase after the Huntsman and soon saw him climbing aboard a horse. "Uh excuse me." Apple touched the horse in a effort to stop the Huntsman and instead felt something soft as the spot where she touched the horse glowed gold. "What the...?" Apple reached into the horse again and grabbed something inside before pulling it out, at the same time Apple was swallowed in a explosion of golden light. Apple suddenly found herself inside of deep woods, neither the Huntsman or his horse was any where to be found and that concerned her a great deal. "Well now what do I do?" Apple asked sighing to herself.

* * *

A boney hand lowered a tea cup to a table inside of the Wonderland Habadashery, drinking tea was little more than a formality for her at this point in time, being undead the liquid just dripped down her rib cage without leaving impact. However it gave her something to do while her two would be conversation partners were busy, the younger one had been put to sleep by the elder, her mother, apparently a precaution to keep her from running off. The mother on the other hand was getting dressed and showering, by the looks of things she hadn't be able to do either for the past decade. Finally ready for a conversation the mother sat down across from Grimhilde the first Evil Queen.

" **I know who you are Dark Lord. Those whose lives you have ended know your name, you have sent many down to our realm.** " Those cold dead eyes peered into Morgan's soul as she stated her next remark. " **You seem to be under the impression that I can help you.** "

A flash of light briefly echoed throughout the room and both individuals looked to Raven, Morgan walked over, picked up something that looked like a mirror, whispered into it before smashing it under a rock.

"I am looking for a old friend of yours. That stupid old book was very informative, so while I do know that you were part of a tribe of mages before you were a Queen, I don't know where they are now." Morgan stated looking the dead Queen in her face.

" **And what do you want with my tribe?** " Grimhilde asked steeple fingers together.

* * *

 **Author's Note** :

Zwei Eis: Thank you, it's nice to know that I'm appreciated.

DJ: Information that only someone who was alive three hundred years ago can know.

Wade: Pretty much, and thank you. Luckily Mira went waaaaayyy too over board with the protective spells.

Charlie: It will work, but at a price.


	57. Chapter 57

**Author's Note** : So I got a tiny bit of criticism from the last chapter concerning a little scene with a corpse and a naked man. So just a little heads up, we won't see anything this time and there will be no more necrophilia for the immediate future. In any case, read, review, favorite and Enjoy!

* * *

Chapter 57: You Shall Not Pass Charming Prince

It didn't take long for Apple to find the next part of the story, The Huntsman chased Schnee down, explained to her what her mother ordered that he do to her, watched as he broke down in tears upon meeting her, and instead directed her to some people that he claimed she would be safe with. Apple for one knew that this was a lie, or the result of a drunken stupor, as she specifically recalled Grimhilde ordering him to bring her daughter back to her alive after her heart was stolen, not to steal her heart and bring it back to her in a box.

"Hey you!" Apple shouted jumping in front of the Huntsman waving her arms about. "I'm speaking to you!"

"Save it." Apple heard Schnee tell her in a cold tone of voice. "That man was dead long before the first letter was written in the book. The only reason that you were able to talk to my mother is because the contents of the book were starting to leak out from all the damage done to it."

"Fair enough." Apple caught a whiff of the air around the huntsman and noticed the distinct scent of something exceptionally fruity. "Why does he smell like a fruit salad?" Apple asked looking confused.

"Because he's Drunk Stupid." Schnee replied a angered tone of voice. "So much death, so much destruction, so much pain and suffering could have all been avoided if I was just taken home back when I had the Chance!" Back when Grimhilde was still talking to her, Apple recalled that she said that she slaughtered a large number of people, now she thinks she killed them for Schnee. "Come, my next horrifically traumatic event awaits." Schnee led Apple to a hovel in the woods, although a fairly large abode the doorway was quite small and Schnee found herself crawling through the hole in order to get inside.

"~Hi ho! Hi ho! Off to Home we go!~" Apple was greeted by the merry sounding singing coming from a short distance away.

"I'd go and hide away somewhere if I was you." Schnee stated in a blunt sounding tone.

"Schnee if something is about to happen..."

"I have your face girl." Schnee stated in a sad tone. "And I just entered the home of seven drunken dwarfs who haven't seen a woman in month's if not years who are mere feet away from returning to their miserable little hole. Stay and watch yourself be raped over and over again if you want, but know that there is nothing you can do for me, and there is nothing you can do for them."

There it was again, that broken and beaten tone, that of someone who had been defeated so utterly that she had given up on ever being treated differently. Apple walked back into the forest as the familiar form of men and women she had grown up with and called aunts and uncles clamored into their home. The young princess of Ever After held her hands over her ears as her own screams and shrieks of pain and begs for mercy ultimately fell on enviously deaf ears, but not all who were listening chose to ignore the young princess. Creatures that could only be described as monsters stormed out of the forest, Fiends, Stymphalians, Basilisks, and something which vaguely resembled a large scaly lion to which Apple assumed Manticores. And soon Apple was greeted by the sounds of people she grew up calling family were violently ripped apart by some of the most savage creatures the realm had to offer. The body of a dwarf Apple knew as Joyful, part of the body more accurately, was tossed off to Apple's side. From the corner of Joyful's mouth, Apple saw a familiar piece of paper and quickly plucked it out.

"It was like this with the other two as well." Apple noted examining the paper. "So the pieces of the curse are hidden inside of those who are to die. Is that suppose to be symbolic or..." It was at that moment that Apple came to a disturbing realization. "I have to go picking through pieces of dead bodies now don't I?" Apple agreed with her doppelgangers hellish assessment of this place, she was at her wit's end already and she had only been here for a couple of hours, she couldn't even comprehend the suffering of someone whose had to go through this every day for three hundred years. "Is there something else here I should be made aware of?" Apple asked eyes wandering.

Normally when she wanted to speak to someone she would look at them, but Schnee was bundled up in a blanket looking traumatized, and bits of dwarfs were lying around the area.

"Just go. Get lost so that I can get my next horrifically traumatizing nightmare over with." Schnee stated in a patented defeated tone of voice.

With that, Apple turned around to leave only to remember something important.

"Ah how do I...?"

"The Door." Schnee stated indicating the doorway that by some miracle was still standing. Apple walked over to the door and opened it, similar with the Huntsman's horse earlier opening the door triggered a wave of golden light came over the area and Apple was back in the castle once more.

"IDIOT!" The door way had a layer of blood splattered over it as someone was violently hit with sufficient force that they had been reduced to a bloodied smear across the floor. Apple walked over to the puddle of blood and pulled out the latest piece of the curse that had appeared before her, with ten pieces of the curse in total Apple noticed that there were only two gaps left in the sheet which indicated the progress on the curse.

"So that means two more have to die eh?"

Grimhilde rushed out of her throne room in tears, and ran into he study where she curled herself into a corner and cried miserably into herself.

"Master..." The Mirror started before being cut off.

"Leave me alone mirror. I wish to cry by myself for the time being." Grimhilde stated in a uncompromising tone.

"Master your daughter is still alive." The Mirror stated words that caused Grimhilde to spring to her feet.

"Show me." Grimhilde was treated to the sight of her daughter in the ruins of the Dwarfs home and surrounded on all sides by various monstrous animals. "Her knack has gone out of control, something horrible must have happened to her." The mirror explained it's voice thick with sympathy.

"Even I can't fight all of those things off by myself." Grimhilde started to pace around the study. "They look like they're bringing her food, if I can somehow sneak a bit of food with a sleeping potion lacing it's contents to her then once she is asleep the animals will have calmed down and I can bring her home. But who can I use to do that?"

"If I may be so bold, the huntsman claimed to have done in a Ulfheonar. If he is as incompetent as we are led to believe I doubt that very much." The Mirror stated in a even tone of voice.

"Shouldn't be too hard to find and subdue and convince to lend us their aid." Grimhilde stated scratching her chin. "I'll need a few things: Bear skins, some lumber..." Grimhilde walked away muttering about making a trap for the so called big bad wolf.

"Ulfheonar?" Apple asked looking confused. "I thought Ramona came from a family of gigan wolves."

"The Ulfheonar are a early precursor to your knights, they are warriors who cloaked themselves in the enchanted skins of wolves so that they could acquire their ferocity in battle. As the legend of the Big Bad Wolf grew the demand became apparent for them to become bigger and badder." The mirror explained simply.

"So what's Grimhilde going to do now?" Apple asked looking confused.

"She's going to go set a trap using a family of bears and a house hoping to lure in the Big Bad Wolf and cage it so that she might negotiate it's assistance. She will fail, a local peasant girl will trigger the trap instead, so instead she'll try to use three goats and a troll, which will be ignored, so instead she'll enchant three pigs to fan it's sadism and trap it inside of a prison of bricks."

"That sounds very familiar." Apple commented realizing that she just had three fairy tales summarized for her. "Also very time consuming. What's Schnee going to be doing?"

"Crying mostly, being repeatedly raped and believing that your own mother is trying to kill you has that effect." The Magic mirror stated in a indifferent tone of voice.

"Why not use these enchanted animals to sneak Schnee the apple?" Apple asked looking confused all of a sudden.

"Any animal tame enough to listen to Grimhilde lacks the savagery to fend off those beasts Schnee has surrounding her. And though they feel obligated to protect her thanks to her animal knack, they have no problem with ripping each other apart."

"Great. Can we fast forward again or..." At once the Mirror clapped it's hands together and time once again was sent into fast forward.

* * *

"Oi you sure this is gonna work?" Sparrow asked sitting next to Mrs. Yaga's shack as he guided students inside.

"I used spacial manipulation magic to increase the size inside of it, it will hold the entire school's population, except for you lot that is." Faybelle, Ramona, Daring, Dexter, Hunter and Sparrow had been selected to escort the shack to their designated evacuation sight, the Well of Wonder, where they could leave this god forsaken place behind for good.

"How's he doing?" Sparrow asked as Dexter and Daring used the rug that covering most of the lounge's floor to carry the whole transference ritual complete with it's two main subjects into the shack.

"Heavy." Dexter replied as he started going up the stairs.

"Also his body feels cold, is that normal?" Daring asked cocking a suspicious brow in the direction of the old witch.

"Yes." Mrs. Yaga stated without an Iota of hesitation.

"While you lead the students to safety, the rest of us will try to draw as many of the undead's attention as possible." Mr. Charming, surrounded by the White Queen, Mr. Bear, Mr. Bad Wolf, Mrs. Shards and Mrs. Trollsworth, explained his shining sword resting confidently against his shoulder.

"That's the easy part, the number of them left now I can count on one hand." The walking mirror stated looking to the direction of the sound of clashing between the Draug and his opponent that was now getting closer, they were making their way towards the back of the school. "The issue here are the ones that are left." Robin Hood ran pass a collection of shrubbery that was shortly there after incinerated by a huge flaming sword wielded by none other than Blue Beard. The giant armored undead roared in provocation and beat his free fist against his chest.

"Grimhilde! Hold him off I'll get Schnee out of here!" Robin Hood shouted looking up into the sky.

"What?" The Draug looked up into the air and saw nothing, he didn't fail to notice however that Robin Hood fired a arrow into the window sill of the school. "Nice try!" Blue Beard swung his sword down on Robin's head only for it to completely pass through his illusionary form. "What?" Up until now, every swing of the sword, every arrow lodged into Blue Beard's body, all of it had been scripted by history. But now someone had interfered with that history, taking one of it's most important figures out of the battle, and while the illusionary Robin Hood lacked the capacity to acknowledge that changed history, the undead Blue Beard most certainly did not. "A trick!" The Undead raged as he realized that he was the butt of some cruel joke of the universe. Then his eyes locked on the group of teachers. "There you are!" Blue Beard declared hatefully eyeing the perceived source of this prank.

"God Mother you talk a lot for a corpse."

Saying that, Mrs. Shards created a large magic circle by waving her blasting wands in front of her in a large circular arc. That magic circle then appeared beneath Blue Beard and suddenly his entire body was bathed in the light of healing magic and chunks of his stony flesh had been sheared off forcing him to stumble back a couple feet. Mr. Charming and The White Queen did not hesitate to rush in on the downed Draug and slammed their weapons into both of the monstrosity's legs, the magically silver plated weapons combined with the health potion coating did some huge damage. Mrs. Trollsworth and Mr. Bear charged in next, silver bits freshly stuck into the trollish war club and silver coatings on the bear's claws each soaked in the health potion continued to damage the high tier undead. Soon a diamond formation had formed between the four teachers who were surrounding the undead monster and wailing away at it with specialized anti-undead weapons. At the same time, Mrs. Shards and Mr. Badwolf had produced their own formation, Mr. Badwolf had puffed up with a huge amount of air and Mrs. Shards had formed a tube shaped barrier around the fully transformed Gigan wolf's snout to which she lodged inside a boulder approximately the size of a beach ball.

"Fire in the hole."

Mrs. Shards stuck the lit blasting wand into the back of the cannon type barrier tube and fired the boulder projectile. With a loud boom and crash the projectile went clean through Blue Beard's chest leaving behind a rather large hole, the undead giant seemed to lose cohesion after that and his body fell to pieces.

"Did we beat em?" Mr. Charming asked looking down in confusion at the heap of rubble.

"Unless Riordan's army has a massive upgrade over this thing, I'm going to to say no." The White Queen replied in a battle ready stance.

Indeed, the ground started shaking beneath their feet, and the broken pieces of that monstrosity's body began to glow with a molten color as the pieces slowly rose into the air. But they did not take the form of the giant, instead a huge mass of fire erupted from the stones and began cycloning around the area, Mrs. Shards erected a barrier to protect the group from winds that could sheer flesh from bone and fires that can reduce a grown man to ash. Blue Beard reassembled behind the walking mirror and slammed down his sword on top of her. Mr. Badwolf used the distraction to latch on with his jaws onto the big ugly undead's arm with his jaws prompting Blue Beard to try and shake the Gigan Wolf off of him.

"So did anyone else see that thing put itself back together even after we hit it with so-called anti-undead weapons?" Mr. Charming asked watching as Mrs. Shards shot the undead in his face with one of her blasting wands.

"Aha." The White Queen stated mopping sweat off of her face because it was getting hot out here.

"So what's plan B again?" Mr. Bear asked rubbing sore paws.

"Stuff it somewhere we don't have to look at it until we figure out how to kill it." Was the White Queen's cold declaration charging into battle once more.

"Ah yes, pure insanity, the Wonderlandian default I should have known." Saying that, Mr. Charming stretched out his back muscles as he walked towards the enemy once again.

* * *

Outside of the Legacy Orchard John was in the process of trying to excise the door which led inside of the Story Book of Legends from the wall.

"Can you guys step it up a little over there!" Hunter stated as he watched a chunk of the school get blown off from the top, presumably from one of Mrs. Shard's stray blasts. "We do not wanna be here when the three hundred year old undead weapon of mass destruction finishes with her little chat!" Hunter shouted ax primed and ready.

"Patience!" Mira snapped back working magic while John worked a crowbar. "Unless you'd like to try and render a inter dimensional portal portable!" Even though they were planning on evacuating, they still had to get Apple back too, short of going in after her trying to get the portal out of the book out of the legacy orchard was their best option, a task that was significantly easier said then done. Not helped in the least by the loud thud that hit the roof of the Legacy Orchard. "Whatever it is I'm not going to be the one to deal with it!" Hunter found himself holding his ax up at the roof in fear. This was a natural reaction, considering the number of times that Nevermore had bit, clawed, smack him around like a rag doll and set him on fire, doubly justified when you consider that she was growling menacingly at him. "They're in there!" Hunter stated as loudly as he could manage pointing to Mrs. Yaga's shack fearfully.

Nevermore jumped down to the shack in question and opened the door with her head. All the students took one look at the scaly purple beast and pointed at the back room immediately. Upon pushing past the curtain Nevermore was greeted by the sight of Ashlynn, Dexter and Hopper attempting to corral the rampaging infantile dragons. Nevermore took one look at the scene before her before roaring, loudly. A series of growls and snarls ensued and the dragons obediently lined up for their mother as she inspected her brood. After confirming that all were present and accounted for another series of growls left Nevermore's throat and the pups flew into Raven's cauldron, prompting Dexter to collapse with sheer relief.

"Never thought I would be happy to see you." Nevermore stepped on Dexter's back producing several cracks in the process as she walked towards the cauldron. "Ah... there's the dragon I know and hate."

The young Mother secured the latches on the cauldron before maneuvering it so that she could carry it on her back, before exiting the shack the same way that she came in and flying off over the waste land that was formerly the magical forest. Raven and her mother were walking along a abandoned path, with all of the animals having fled from the forest and everything she could have magicked into a ride having gotten up and attacked the school and cutting off the mirror network this was their third option. But not for much longer as Nevermore landed in front of the pair, having retrieved her spawn from the school.

"You're the worst you know that right?" Raven asked glaring at the back of her mother's head.

"I've been told as much." Morgan stated giving Nevermore a ear scratch.

"You drag a that man, whom according to you was already a monster when he was still alive, back from the dead and sent it after my classmates!"

"This again." Morgan rolled her eyes as she prepared the same old spiel. "Every window, mirror and other random hunk of glass in that entire place are my eyes, ears and weapons! And at my command everyone of them can go off at once turning those second rate undead into Mammoth Cheese." Morgan stated in a tone of voice which indicated that she had repeated this several times already.

"And that makes it okay?" Raven asked glaring at her mother.

"What part of I am trying to fight a war don't you understand?" Morgan all but growled at her daughter. "'Okay' rarely has anything to do with it!"

"Wars are fought between nations with armies and soldiers Mom! You're just a terrorist! In that department you are fantastic!" Raven stated giving more mother a sarcastic condescending slow clap of her hands.

"Maybe." Morgan conceded climbing onto Nevermore's back. "But I'm gonna win!" With that Morgan produced a floating barrier beneath Raven's feet and the cauldron and towed them along as she flew on Nevermore's back.

* * *

 **Review Section** :

Jascmaster: Sorry about that, I should have posted a warning at the beginning of the chapter.

Zwei Eis: I like to think Apple has really grown lately. And no, the Grim Tales are not all that pleasant.

DJ: Not only that, if Grimhilde hadn't died she'd still be Riordan's queen and would still be it's queen for hundreds of years yet to come. It's not randomly, Apple is following the story like the rest of us, it only makes since that the huntsman would appear before her. She'll probably be okay with Hunter, his ancestor wasn't a bad person simply drunk, Daring on the other hand she isn't going to want anything to do with, rightfully so.

Wade: Luckily Mrs. Yaga is a very good therapist.

Charlie: Luckily though they only have to beat one for now, and all they have to do is figure out what they already have.


	58. Chapter 58

**Author's Note** : Not much to say this morning, I will be focusing the bulk of my attention on this story for the next month or two, if that's of any interest. Read, Review, Favorite and Enjoy!

* * *

Chapter 58: I am Red Riding Hood

"RRRRAAAAWWWRRR!"

Apple knew that it wasn't a appropriate thing to think right now, but boy did Ramona look funny when she was stuck. Well not Ramona per say, her distant ancestor the original big bad wolf but still, he was wearing her face right now. After two previous failures involving enchanted bears and goats Grimhilde successfully managed to cast a spell on three pigs that subsequently built a brick shack and trapped the big bad wolf inside trying to eat them.

"I know you're not the real thing, shall we drop this farce so that we can talk?" Grimhilde asked looking down at the so called Big Bad Wolf. Not quite so big right now, definitely smaller then Ramona's wolf form.

"LEMME GO AND I'LL SHOW YOU TALKING!" The Bad Wolf snarled biting at the brick wall separating her from the Queen of the Witches.

"Oh chew on this and then calm down." Grimhilde produced a magic circle from which the half crushed corpse of the Huntsman had been produced.

"Grr." The Bad Wolf was not happy to see that corpse. Not at all. "I needed him alive!"

"My apologies but after he told me to my face that he had killed my daughter I lost my self restraint." Grimhilde stated examining dirt underneath her nails.

"That seems to be a common theme with him." The head and tail of the Ulfheojar disappeared into the brick building. Grimhilde made use of a simple spell and the brick building was destroyed, revealing not Ramona but Cerise, complete with the red hood, albeit a red hood that was the pelt of a red haired wolf.

"If I didn't know better, I'd think I was looking at little Red Riding Hood." Apple stated noting that the fully grown individual was even dressed in woman's clothes such as a skirt and leather corset, but it wasn't what she'd call feminine, the use of thick leather gave more of a impression of body armor than anything else. Said armor couldn't hide the bulging muscle or broad shoulders, there was nothing little about her. However Ramona's/Cerise's doppelganger turned her attention to look at her.

"I am Little Red Riding Hood. It was my nick name when I was a child." The woman stated glaring down at Apple.

"So then... who was the Big Bad Wolf?" Apple asked scratching her head in confusion.

"My mother, we were both Ulfheojar." Red Riding explained looking might displeased.

"Well that figures." The story of Snow White was full of nothing but lies it figures the same holds true for Red Riding Hood's story. "What did you want with The Huntsman?"

"He killed my mother, carved my unborn child out of my womb, stuffed my guts full of rocks and tried to drown me in a river." Red Riding Hood listed off in increasingly angry tones. "Take a wild guess."

To these horrific revelations Apple closed her eyes, took a deep breath, before opening them again.

"You two were in the middle of something?" Apple asked in a neutral tone.

"I'm pressed for time, I need someone who knows how to fight off magical creatures, sneak through hostile territory, and deliver something to someone very important to me. Name it and it's yours." Grimhilde explained tapping fingers impatiently.

"I want my daughter back." Red Riding Hood stated in a snarl, before pointing accusingly towards the man she recognized only by scent. "And he's the only one who knows where to find her."

"Is that all?" Grimhilde asked before casting another magic circle on the pulverized corpse next to her. The familiar dark echor of a reanimation spell leaked out from Grimhilde's hand and covered the bloodied mess. The mass of black rose to a standing position, the darkness draining away to reveal a skeletal man in tattered clothes. Immediately the man recognized the one who stood before him, as made evident by his fearful reactions. That was all that Red Riding Hood need. She grabbed the undead by his scruff and slammed him against her brick prison.

"Where. Is. My. Daughter!?" The snarling werewolf demanded hatred in her eyes.

"I... I... I sold her to a local lord!" After all, since Red Riding Hood was in the form of wolf at the time of her daughter's quote on quote birth said daughter had also taken on wolf like traits. "She'll be raised as part of his hunting dogs!"

"Which. Lord!?"

"Raeven Du Lac!" That's all the Ulfheojar needed to know before she went into a particularly werewolf like form and ripped the undead hunter in half.

"You can get to my daughter with little difficulty, and I can get to yours with slightly less, conversely if I try to get to my daughter I will be siege by a legion of creatures in a misguided attempt to protect her, and if you try to get to yours you will be met with the blades of soldiers which contrary to what you are fond of leading people to believe can hurt you." Grimhilde stared down the transformed werewolf looking rather intimidating.

"Fine. What do you need me to do?" The Bad Wolf asked turning back to human form.

"Deliver these to her." Grimhilde stated dropping the basket full crimson red apples at the Bad Wolf's feet.

"That's it?" The Bad Wolf asked looking mighty suspicious.

"They're filled with a powerful sleeping draft, once she's unconscious the monsters that instinctively protect her thanks to her out of control knack will stop and disperse then I can go in and get her." Grimhilde explained crossing her arms.

On that note, Red Riding hood went Bad Wolf and picked the basket up in her teeth before she walked away, Apple going to follow her.

* * *

John's crowbar made a creaking noise as he stabbed it into the wall and attempted to tear the book like door out of it.

"Ugh. I need a stronger crowbar." John stated looking at the notable bend that had formed in his tool of choice.

"Indeed." Mira noted being equally frustrated with her spell. "This entire building will come down before that portal budges." Mira noticed Faybelle who was carrying a huge number of Draugr corpses with her. "Do I wanna know?"

"No." Saying that Faybelle dragged the mass of metal, bone and wood into the shack.

"I am working on a means of disguising ourselves." Mrs. Yaga explained stating on the porch of her little home. "Even though these Draugr have fallen for now they still radiate with the power of the undead that is the same as other Draugr that are still functioning and the Draug that your teachers are fighting. Using that energy we should be able to camouflage ourselves at the least, but at the most, Quality crafting material often leads to powerful magical weapons in the right hands." Suddenly a giant gaping hole was punched clean through the school, one that then proceeded to fix itself, but perhaps not the point. "Speaking of quality magical weapons."

Blue Beard by this time was forced into the school itself by virtue of pure brute strength. Schlechtester and Mr. Bad Wolf's super blast combination smashed him through a wall earlier, while Mr. Bear, Mr. Charming, Mrs. Trollsworth and the White Queen went after him in close quarters combat, breaking off chunks of that stubbornly powerful body. It was when the body started to completely fall apart that the group moved on to the second phase of their attack.

"Stand clear!" The four close quarters combat specialists ducked into the neighboring classrooms. Schlechtester produced a multi-layered magic circle by waving her wands around in a circle before aiming both of them at their enemy. "Die Hölle einfrieren!" A huge amount of air was sucked into the school from behind the animated mirror, channeled through the tube like magic circles which had formed in front of her, before being fired at the Draug in a concentrated stream of liquid cold extinguishing the fire storm in it's womb in the process. Moments later the White Queen used her sword to pry open the door that she had sought cover behind followed by her co-workers.

"What was that a freeze spell?" The White Queen asked looking around the area eye brows raised in suspicion.

"Extinguisher spell." Schlechtester stated rolling her shoulders.

"For what exactly?" Mr. Charming asked disbelief as plain as day on his face.

"Forest Fires." Mr. Bear suggested brushing frost off of his fur. Suddenly the area started to shake again as the ice started to crack up. "Oh you've got to be kidding me!"

"Stay out here or in the classroom's I don't care just close the doors!" As instructed the other teachers closed all the doors. Schlechtester flipped both of her wands into stabbing position and held them both together, producing a huge sonic shriek attack that shattered the frozen monster like a wine glass at a opera show. Schlechtester flipped the wands back into shooting position and fired a blast of air into the pile of frozen Draug creating a wind storm that scattered the enemy into the school's mirror network, before magic barriers appeared in all of the mirrors sealing Blue Beard inside, even as giant fists of fire attempted to smash their way out. "Perhaps if merely smashing him isn't enough to stop him then smashing him to pieces and dividing the pieces into multiple sections will suffice to buy enough time to figure out how he's locking himself to the physical plain and kill him."

"Locking?" Mr. Charming asked looking confused.

"Similar in principle to the half ass sleeping potion they use for Snow White's story: Snow White is put under a spell, Prince Charming is the key to breaking it." Schlechtester stated observing the cracks that had started to form in the temporary cages.

"So what's our 'Prince Charming' and what do we do when we find it? Smash it?" The White Queen asked cocking a brow suspiciously.

"Both details we are not aware of." The walking Mirror used her wands to prod the group away from the windows and into one of the class rooms. "Apple should have a idea of what we're looking for when she gets back, that is in turn working under the presumption that Morgan hasn't done something crazy with it." That seemed to shock the other teachers.

"Then why on Earth did we send little Apple in there if it may not work!?" Mr. Charming asked in a accusatory voice.

"Because it's more likely then not that she didn't. Morgan has no reason to assume that we have the means of devising the secret behind a already top secret curse. Now quit bellyaching."

" **RAWWRR!** " A huge great sword cut into the wall and tore it down.

"We've got work to do."

* * *

Apple followed Red Riding Hood back to Schnee, the young princess had wrapped herself in a blanket and was surrounded by rather terrifying looking carnivorous animals the latest of whom was a certain basket full of apples carrying wolf Apple had followed there who had since arriving curled up next to the traumatized princess and was getting her ears scratched for her trouble.

"I suspect I know what's going to happen next, but I don't want to watch it, every other piece of this curse has popped up when someone has died, so I would prefer to skip to the part where people start dying and skip through the horrifically traumatic events." Apple stated looking quite exhausted with herself.

"Skim, not skip, the book won't let you go forward unless you know the whole truth. After the Bad Wolf dropped off her package I fell asleep, the large number of animals that look good when decapitated and hung on a wall attracted a different kind of predator. One who prefers to leave out chunks of meat that has been poisoned, brings along one hundred subordinates to act as meat shields and extra muscle, then pose heroically on top of it's corpse while the occasion was documented, before tearing it's head off and having it mounted in his lounge while leaving the rest out to rot." Schnee stated breathing in then out.

"I'm not like you, the magic bred out of your veins by generations of remarrying and inbreeding with the same family for generations. You can make them do what you want them to do, but I feel their pain, I feel their screams in my head as their souls are violated and put on display. It was then that my 'Prince Charming' told me about what kind of man he really was, right after he plowed the sleeping apple chunk I bit off out of me." There it was again, that beaten and battered look of someone who had given up on ever being treated differently, of someone who had been unimaginably violated in every conceivable way over and over again without end.

"Do... do you want to talk about it?"

"No thank you. You have a story to finish reading."

Suddenly time was on fast forward again. Schnee bit into the poisoned apple and fell asleep instantly, Red Riding Hood stayed to look after her as the creatures left the influence of Schnee's knack on them broken. Eventually though hunger lured her away, though not for long, Red coming back with a slab of fresh meat and biting into it, only to cough and gag a few minuets later falling unconscious herself. A fiend was chased into the clearing, even on fast forward it had clearly been drugged before it fell to arrow fire. Blue Beard came by shortly thereafter, his servants carrying a spear full of severed heads of various different animals, but now he had a far more appetizing prize laid out before him. Apple didn't care to look at whatever Blue Beard was doing now so she just turned around and looked away.

"I'm so not going to sign that book now. And if I have my way no one else gonna either." Even though Apple said that, she realized she needed to think about it. No one signing the book meant that the world it was barely holding together would inevitably fall apart. Not all of the stories had to be a mass of twisted lies either... right? "Huu..." The world wasn't being held together, it wasn't at peace, this was just a cold war and it wasn't going to end until this book dies or everything snapped. Was all of the pain and suffering built up inside of this book really worth it?

"Nothing worth doing is easy." Apple spun around, while she was musing her thoughts the scenery changed again, she recognized it in a instant and yet this was completely different, Ever After High, as a military base. But that was still some distance away, what had caught Apple's attention was Sparrow sitting on a stone in front of her, a familiar set of words going up his arm. "Grimhilde learned that lesson the hard way and it cost her her life."

"Since when is Robin Hood in Snow White?" Apple asked looking off to the side confused.

"Since my cousin Red recommended to Grimhilde a more competent man of the woods to rescue her daughter." Robin Hood explained securing a arrow head to a Arrow.

"This is the school..." Then the pieces suddenly snapped together in Apple's mind. "... this is the battle that everyone in the real world are reliving isn't it?"

"What you talking about?" Robin asked looking confused.

"The curse, on the school, undead warriors are running around everywhere magical spells are raining down from the sky..." It was then that a horrified look crossed Apple's face. "... Oh sweet godmother Grimhilde's raining magical spells down on the school!"

"Figured that out did yah?" Robin replied checking the string on his bow.

"How many people died here?" Apple asked looking at the place that would soon be the sight of a massacre.

"Oh here? Hundreds? But on her way here, Grimhilde killed thousands." Robin replied, his voice carrying a hint of anger with it.

"What...? Why!?" Apple asked looking shocked and horrified.

"Well lets see here... before his untimely demise the Good King, Grimhilde's late husband that is, had a rather wonderful relationship with Blue Beard, what with their shared hobbies of raping and murdering every woman they could get their hands on. The difference being that Blue Beard was much more subtle when it came to his hobbies, even the old Good King would disapprove of necrophilia you must understand. As a consequence of that, Blue Beard's nickname of 'Prince Charming' was actually rather appropriate. The man is nice to look at for the type who goes for that sort of thing. He's kind of like a..." Robin looked into the sky as he thought about something appropriate. "Manticore yes. Nice to look at, also vicious carnivore and highly venomous. Of course the difference between them is a matter of taste, one kills for food, the other for sport. But I digress there's work that needs to be done." Saying that, the Sparrow look alike got out a length of rope attached to one of his arrows and aimed it at the fortress.

"Can we skim? I need to get out of this nightmare pit with the last two pieces of the curse now." Apple plead her tone quite desperate.

"Oh very well. Basically he had convinced the various people under his care that Grimhilde was a monster, calling herself the 'Evil Queen' left the door wide open there, come to kill them all. Now mind you by that point in time the Evil Queen lineage did not quite have so much divine, fairy, various demons, other magical creatures blood in their veins as it does now..." Something ground to a halt inside of Apple's brain at that point in time as her face scrunched in confusion. "Oh don't look so surprised, if you know where to find them then it's not that hard to plow them. They have needs too you know. Now where was I."

"A bunch of villagers managed to over power the Evil Queen." Apple stated rubbing her temples with this madness.

"Right. Iron is a good start, so is having a bunch of angry dwarfs too. Grimhilde is after all simply your average witch with the knowledge to bring great violence down on her enemies. She had to fight for every inch of land she traveled, and tap into things she wasn't meant to to get there. Demonic rituals, curses, undead, human sacrifice. Oh she was certainly a real 'Evil Queen' by the time she got here."

"That's not true!" Apple snapped as if offended. "It's not... I mean... she was just trying to save her daughter."

"Maybe, but she did so at the cost of a massive number of lives both by her hands and the actions that are to come." Robin stated, his eyes held no sympathy and no mercy. "Given various options to protect her family she chose war, and the rest of us had to pay for it, including you. How different would the world be do you think if it weren't for that brutal vicious slaughter? Think it over for a bit, I'm going to be late for my part." Saying that Robin Hood began his infiltration at the same time that Grimhilde's first volley came down from the sky.

* * *

 **Review Section** :

Zwei Eis: Oh they will. Thank you for saying so.

DJ: That they were. The lesson she needs to learn here is that we are not our ancestors, Raven is not the one who murdered a couple thousand people, and none of the Charming siblings are the serial rapist and murder that their fore father was, and Apple isn't the endlessly abused and tormented victim that her ancestor was either. No Raven is not tied up, yes she is going along with her mother willingly.

Wade: The next one will be a two for one bargain, Apple will be the one coming to the rescue this time, as it were.

Charlie: Information. For Raven to be a damsel she would have to be a unwilling participant in her mother's schemes, as it is though for Raven to get what she wants some cooperation is in order.


	59. Chapter 59

**Author's Note** : Well that was fast sorry for the delayed response Charlie and Wade. In the mean time Read, Review Favorite and Enjoy!

* * *

Chapter 59: The Time Has Come For This to End Evil Queen.

Faybelle admittedly found herself gulping when she looked out the window. Who wouldn't. She was one of the few individuals who were capable of comprehending what she was actually looking at after all. On first glance it was a undead mage, a simple arcane horror, but one of great power, it radiated power out of every pore of it's body, based on the quality of this magic, Faybelle concluded that they were looking at a Elder Lich, a Queen of the Undead. The materials that she was wrapped in though were... sub par at best, grass, iron, simple wooden boards, the gap between what she was and what she was wearing was massive, but that only meant this was a newly raised undead, that just made it all the more important that they find a way of putting it down, before it realized what it was and what it was capable of doing.

"Forget armor we need weapons, big ones." Saying that Faybelle climbed down through the inside of the Witches shack and arrived at the old woman's living room, by the looks of things whatever magic ritual they were doing with the old man and the new book was completed. In addition to the lack of glowing magic symbols Hunter was on top of the old man performing CPR on Milton's body.

"I know you people are in the middle of something but if I could kindly direct your attention to the nearest window you will probably see the undead monster outside." That didn't get a reaction out of anyone, causing Faybelle to pause as she recalled the recent events. "Not that guy the other one, the Lich that Sparrow saw talking to queen crazy!"

"So, Grimhilde has come here after all." Mrs. Yaga stated as she rubbed her chin.

"The first Evil Queen right? Why would she be here?" Daring asked scratching the side of his head.

"Given the fact that she is undead and this curse this area has been put under produces undead one can logically assume that she died here." Dexter stated adjusting his glasses.

"I thought she was suppose to die fighting Prince Charming though?" Daring asked looking confused.

"One of the illusions in the Headmaster's office." Sparrow stated, twirling arrows between his fingers as he debated how much information he wanted to share. "She had black hair, red lips and pale white skin. I'd bet that was Snow White, it wouldn't be unreasonable to assume that Prince Charming was here too."

"Then why haven't we seen him around?" Daring asked only looking even more confused.

"What makes you think we haven't?" Faybelle asked looking out the window at the school, the building shook every few minuets, the teachers were doing a rather good job of keeping that thing trapped inside of the building.

"So Prince Charming is Blue Beard eh?" Sparrow asked a certain tic having developed in his eye. "I'm gonna savage the history room mercilessly when this is over." Some how Sparrow suspected that the D in History he got on his last test was now utterly, laughably, completely worthless.

"What do we do now?" Ashlynn asked using a bag of ice to nurse a head wound she got from one of the dragon chicks earlier on.

"Enemy of my enemy is my friend." Sparrow suggested darkly.

"Meaning we get Grimhilde and Blue Bastard to kill each other? I like it!" Faybelle stated looking over joyed. "One slight problem with that young missy, they're already dead." Mrs. Yaga stated rolling her eyes.

"And that is a problem because...?" Daring asked his confusion only getting worst.

"Because they're the reset button, the high level undead who hold this place together, putting one or both of them down will reset the curse and swarm us with freshly spawned Draugr." Mrs. Yaga stated rolling her eyes.

"Oh..." Daring stated, he wasn't confused anymore, but scared wasn't a improvement.

"So we should try to keep them apart then?" Ashlyn piped up bag of ice against head in one hand and fingers tapping on a knee in the other. "How do we do that diplomacy? Is the Head Master..." Hunter got up from Milton's body and shook his head in the negative.

"Well what did he expect?" Mrs. Yaga asked huffing with frustration.

"He prophesied that he would kick the bucket." Giles stated in a manner of fact fashion in direct contrast to his use of the riddlish language. "The Night Sky paintings do have a dragon sized price tag attached to them do they not?"

"Wait how does fixing the book kill Milton?" Dexter asked, now it was his turn to be confused.

"When the original was destroyed it's contents went looking for somewhere else to go, the book's guardians were subsequently forced to suffer three hundred years of fairy tale curses, Milton had me make a magic receiver so that all of those curses would go into him instead." Mrs. Yaga sighed in a sad tone once more. "A normal person wouldn't even stand a chance against that, but Milton was a out of shape old man, why don't you put two and two together on that?" Milton was dead as soon as they started the ritual is what Mrs. Yaga was saying. "After that comes the dark magic, Milton used his soul to piggy back everything that was being kept inside of the old book into the new one."

"So the book's fixed now? Can we go get Apple?" Mira asked sitting on the stairs.

"She's already been in there for a while. Is the portal in any shape for people to use it after all the tampering you did with it?" Mrs. Yaga asked cocking a suspicious brow.

"We couldn't even budge it." Mira stated in a frustrated tone of voice. "That thing is just as stubborn and sturdy as the day it was put there."

"Then it should be safe to go inside and retrieve the renegade princess. Preferably someone who can simply get to the part of the story that Apple is in right now." While Mrs. Yaga was thinking about that the door was suddenly slammed open.

* * *

Apple had her back to the fortress that would soon enough be a school, Grimhilde had shown up a little while ago looking rather horrible, like years had been taken off of the end of her life, which to be fair was probably the case given what Robin had told her about all of the dark magic spells that Grimhilde had been casting just to get here. Then the violence started, spell after spell had started to rain down death and destruction upon the fortress, putting it all on fire, and Grimhilde was starting to near her limit, slaughtering the goons that had been sent to die in the place of Prince Charming. Apple understood a simple fact by now, Grimhilde was not going to win this fight, she was not going to win it by a long shot. But she still chose to fight, to do everything she could to save her daughter, and now it was time for her to cash in on all the bad karma she had built up on. Grimhilde's body wasn't doing a very good job of holding itself together right now, like she had been filled to the brim with a thousand writhing wriggling worms that all wanted to get out of her body as soon as possible. For each spell that Grimhilde cast it cost her a metaphorical pound of flesh, a little bit more of her life that was on the verge of spontaneously ending. Finally she reached her limit, her body exploding into a vast darkened mist so much similar to Raven's Obscuris. And that mist spread out, creating a army, a vast number of people who marched forward on the fortress in a zombie like fashion.

"Not a pretty sight is it?" Schnee asked standing next to Apple, a while ago Robin Hood did battle with Blue Beard while Grimhilde held off his army, and now that the army was finished Robin was able to get Schnee away while Grimhilde fought Blue Beard.

"What's... what's happening?" Apple asked looking down at the vast army of the dead that had appeared in the courtyard. "Where did all these people come from?"

"Do you know what a Revenant is?" Schnee asked surprising Apple. "It is what happens when someone gets cursed to death, forever bound to the one who is responsible for ending them and knowing no peace until they are killed." If that was the case, then they should be leaving now that Grimhilde was dead not appearing. "Who was it that invoked the wrath of a monster by stealing her daughter? Who was it that sent these people to die instead of him?" It is not a dragon's fault that they roast a entire kingdom to the ground, it was the fault of the fool arrogant enough to think they could slay one while it was asleep.

"Briar said that Blue Beard was torn to pieces." Apple stated realization upon her.

"Then Briar is right." Blue Beard was a impressive swords man, he was able to cut down his enemy by the dozens. But they were thousands, they didn't care how many of them that Blue Beard cut down, they kept throwing themselves on his sword until there was so much weight attached to it that he couldn't swing it anymore. They didn't care what his armor was made out of the strongest materials his ill gotten money could buy, made by the finest craftsmen he could get his hands on: a thousand prying hands found it's every weakness and tore it apart. They did not care that he was a pure blooded noble able to trace his lineage back five generations: his blood was still red and his flesh still tore.

"GWAAAHAHAAHAHAHAAAAA!" Now that the so called Charming Prince was dead, but the undead weren't going away, the immediately turned their attention to the tree line where Schnee and Apple were hiding.

"What are they doing!?" Apple asked legitimately scared by that stare by so many undead.

"They don't just kill you..." Schnee stated tapping her fingers on a bulging belly where the spawn of a demon in human form dwelt. "They kill everyone related to you too. Whether they are 'alive' or not." Immediately, the undead started charging towards Apple and Schnee, what happened next would be down right comical if it weren't so god mother be damned terrifying: They tripped, all of the revenants tripped over themselves crushing one another under their own weight. "Huh?" Apple was legitimately surprised by what she saw, but then again who wouldn't be? "What just...?"

" **No...!** " That haunting phantom like voice echoed throughout the battle field, one among the undead floated above the crowd, a certain witch queen who had recently joined the ranks of the dead. " **There has been enough death for one day. Bindung der Verdammten!** " Grimhilde shouted, and suddenly a huge mass of chains burst forth from her guts and pierced through all of the revenants that were still on the ground. " **Fall des Morgensterns!** " Wooden boards appeared behind Grimhilde and huge rail road spikes nailed them to her back, torso, legs, arms and head in a large cross using oversize rail road spikes. " **Let's all rot in hell TOGETHER!** "

Grimhilde and her cross slammed deep into the ground, as in deep underground, burning a massive hole in the ground as the chains chased her down, dragging with her all of her victims even as they tried to stay in the world of the living, before the hole finally sealed itself up, cutting off the wails of the dead in the process. For their trouble, the last two pieces of the curse fluttered out at the last moment and toward's Apple before assembling themselves into the completed curse. Not that Apple cared at the moment.

"That... that was horrible." Apple could only gape in shock at what she just saw, a thousand souls dragged off to hell, all just to protect one person.

"Why are you surprised? She already killed thousands of people, including herself, just to protect me." Schnee stated, her voice somewhat depressed. "Why wouldn't she finish them?"

"What about you... what did you do after all of this?" Apple asked her horrified look starting to even out.

"Firstly, I found the one you know as the Candy Witch, a Wiccan who specialized in the unpleasant business of abortion. Once I rid myself of the abomination growing inside of me I set out doing as much damage control as possible, but because of my mother's actions it was open season on anyone or any thing magic, organizing the various magical animals that inhabit the land into a army was one of my best shots, but a military leader I was never. Then the conjoining of the spheres occurred."

Another pulse of golden light shown.

"Some... cosmic alignment, some joining of the stars, something that we didn't understand happened." Schnee was much older now, a proper monarch one could say, she was joined by a group of mages as they examined a device Apple didn't recognize, a bunch of big huge bulbs on the ends of long spindly pipes. "Portals started opening up to other worlds, Neverland, Wonderland, The Cloud Kingdom, the Arabians. And I had a sinking suspicion my mother had something to do with it." Schnee stated breathing in then out. "But that is a story for another day, you have a curse to break."

Apple looked like she realized something though so she asked Schnee.

"That curse Grimhilde cast, the one with all the chains, what did it do to all those undead?" Apple asked her tone of voice the same one she had when she was scheming up a plan of some kind or another. "They were already bound together by the curse she used to kill them, then that curse made that binding stronger." Schnee stated her eyes questioning Apple's Motives. "So when she cast herself to the afterlife she took them with her?" Apple asked as she seemed to be on pinnacle of a eureka moment.

"That was the idea yes." Schnee stated still not understanding what Apple meant.

"Even Blue Beard?" Apple asked a desperate note.

"Oh I assure you my at the bare minimum she made sure that he was going to hell with her." Schnee stated giving a eye roll.

"Thank you very much!" Apple suddenly went ramrod straight before bowing at the hip to Schnee. "I need to get back to the real world now!"

"The door behind you." Schnee stated prompting Apple to turn around and walk through the door. Immediately Ever After's young princess found herself back in the office of the Narrator, but she did not linger there, she rushed out the way she came in the first place and found herself inside of the legacy orchard. "Please don't be too late, please don't be too late." Apple immediately locked eyes with Mira's Friend John. "John! Is everyone okay!"

"Oh sure, they're all in the witches shack." John stated pointing to the door out of the orchard. "And the Book?"

"In there too." Immediately Apple rushed past Johnathan, and looked up into the air to see the sight of a undead spell caster floating through the air. "I'm running out of time!" Apple climbed up Mrs. Yaga's shack to the front door, and slammed it open. "I need the Story Book of Legends! Is it fixed?"

"So nice to see that you're okay too." Mrs. Yaga stated holding up the book for Apple to take. At once Apple snatched the book out of Mrs. Yaga's hands and promptly bolted down the stairs back outside.

"Grimhilde!" That prompted the undead queen to pause and look down at Apple. "Your Daughter's name is Schnee!" The undead cocked her head at Apple, as if she had just said something very strange. "I know that your wife was murdered by the Good King, I know you tried to keep their daughter safe anyway, that you raised her on your own like she was your own flesh and blood. I know..."

" **That's enough.** " Grimhilde floated down to Apples level and glared her directly in her eye. " **I smell her blood in you.** " Grimhilde's voice turned hard, vicious one would even say, like she had just bore witness to something disgusting. " **But I sense something else too, something more, someone familiar, someone I hate! Why shouldn't I kill you?** "

"Because I hate him too!" Apple shouted a angered glare in his eyes. "He's a monster that ruined lives for sport and made war for his own amusement! He died horribly and he deserved it, but along the way a lot of people paid for it and we need to make things right for them!" The school started shaking and a huge dent was put into the front door as something tried to get out. "This Book was made three hundred years ago, those who sign it get their memories recorded inside of it and all of the curses inside of them sucked out of them!" Apple stated holding out the book for Grimhilde to see. "If you sign this then you and all of people you killed will be free of the curses that you cast when you were still alive."

" **What a clever little toy.** " Grimhilde commented picking up the book and examining it, opening the book as she did so. " **A spell of transferal, designed so that everything that happens to the one who signs it happens instead to the signature. At the same time it ties everyone who signs it together.** " Then she turned to one particular page, depicting a woman cloaked in nightmare and flame holding the removed heart of someone or something that was quite important. " **Hmm. So this is what people think of me? Well it's not like I have the right to complain.** " More important then the picture though, Grimhilde saw a length of signatures going down the page, all of them ended in the word for Queen in her native language: Konigan. " **My Illustrious Bloodline.** " But the space at the top, as if to say number one, was blank. " **So you had a special spot reserved for me all along eh?** " Grimhilde asked no one in particular, the resemblance of a smile on her bony features.

"Ah, Grimhilde, not to rain on your parade but if you could move this along." Apple asked as the doors for the school came off of their hinges.

" **Yes. I suppose it is time we end this.** " Suddenly a burst of magic shot out from Grimhilde's hand as Apple was sent flying into the shack. Then a spectral hand picked the shack up and threw it inside the Legacy Orchard before locking it up tight. Blue Beard caught sight of Grimhilde just as she put magic pen to paper. " **Too little, too late.** " Grimhilde wrote a scrawl across the top page and that was when it started to end. The cursed fog got swept up like a hurricane, the souls of the dead and damned bound by chains appeared in the mists, and finally Blue Beard felt that impenetrable invincible body of his start to break down. " **What? What is happening!? What foul sorcery are you playing at now witch!?** " Blue Beard shrieked as he saw his body fall apart around him, finally exposing bone that had not seen the light of day for three hundred years. " **I am ending this, all of this.** "

Blue Beard and Grimhilde joined the swirling vortex of the dead and the damned and the like the vortex were promptly sucked inside of the Book of Legends. Unfortunately, the Legacy orchard, which was forcibly dragged into this plane of existence by the curse, was also punted back off to wherever it is that it goes when it's not in the physical realm, leaving the courtyard abandoned.

* * *

 **Review Section** :

DJ: The thing that Raven wants most, is her family back, is hanging out with them while they're planning to go to war with the rest of the realm her wisest move? No. But now she's in the position to stop them from doing anymore chronically suicidal stunts. Thank you for saying so. Yes she did die but long after the fact, her brief brush with neurotoxins caused some mental health problems which eventually culminates in being locked in the form of a wolf permanently and reproducing mostly with various other unpleasant species of dogs. Her daughter on the other hand was retrieved by Grimhilde, given to Robin Hood, who then contacted a witch to de-wolf her thus starting two separate lines of fairy tale characters based on the Huntsman's drunken stupor and lies.

Zwei Eis: Thank you for saying so. She'll need to recover her mental faculties first.

Jacsmaster: I have no idea what Targaryen refers to and I suspect I don't wanna no. Red Riding Hood is one of the few stories that don't specify who it is that the characters don't ultimately end up with and thus there is no need for them to plow any one specifically. Yes Red Hood and Bad wolf are distantly related, by about fourteen generations back for Riding and probably a few more for Bad Wolf, if you wanna call incest for that then I suggest you never go to Scandinavia.

Strange Idea: First foremost, Spell Check! Or just don't post reviews from your phone which ever one it is. I can see that you sunk some serious time and effort into this review and while I appreciate that I cringe at the sight of bad spelling so reading the fruits of your labors is quite difficult for me. Secondly, Having grit my teeth and read through the review anyway I have to say that you are not wrong, but I am more of a pro rebel man myself, and there will be moments where Raven's actions do come back to bite her. Thirdly, Thank you very much, I'm always glad to hear that someone likes my stories and I'm happy to have a new reader. Fourthly, Hmm... A interesting idea, one that I might look into in a future story. Either way good day to you sir, and I look forward to reading more of your reviews.

Charlie: Oh it's much worst then that, remember those bodies Sparrow saw swinging in the head master's office: Wanna hazard a guess as to what their names were? I'm pretty sure that Apple isn't going to be happy to find anyone 'following the script' at this point in time.

Wade: True, but at least it got better.


	60. Chapter 60

**Author's Note** : 612 501 492 476 461 444 433

* * *

Chapter 60: Let the Dead Rest, Snow White

Getting back out of the shack was a exercise in team work. Several students had to climb on top of one another's shoulders to create a human ladder, or in this case one Gigan wolf, one prince and one batty old witch. Now that Mrs. Yaga was outside she realized that they had been thrown into the legacy orchard, and that the fog of war was gone from outside which also meant that the curse had been lifted. This wasn't so much a bad thing, yet Mrs. Yaga still felt her gut drop.

"Alright you lets look at the damage."

Mrs. Yaga guided the shack out of the Legacy Orchard through the same giant hole that it made when it came in. Gone was the burning atmosphere of the curse, so that was at least one thing that made the world a little better. It didn't take the witch long to find the Book of Legends, nor the two figures who fought over it, one a giant made of stone, his sword ready to strike even as something tore it open and ripped something else out of it, and the other a woman's mummified husk sitting on her knees and holding the book in a death grip between two hands. Confirming that the two undead were with the dead once more Mrs. Yaga now turned her attention to what had wrapped around the two statue like figures: Vines, rose vines to be more precise, thousands of them stretching out as far as the eye could see, which given the recent clearing of the forest was pretty far away, the air was thick with a particular curse of a fairy family who bore it's name.

"You can come out now! I don't really care if you're wounded!"

Thus the school's student body flooded out of the shack single file, now that it was once again on two legs it was much easier one needs to understand, that said the looks of confusion on the students faces as they came out was mildly amusing for the old crone, but mostly she saw looks of relief.

"Where's the Beauty Girl?" Mrs. Yaga asked, prompting Briar to step forward after everyone else glared at her. "Hm. Strike one."

If Briar had somehow ended up injured and outside of the shack before their little tumble then that would explain the explosion of rose vines.

"Alright, Lockes!" Now Blondie stepped forward, eyes darting about nervously as she wondered what the old hag wanted with her. "Go get me connected to the Mirror net."

"...What?" Blondie asked looking shocked.

"Did I stutter? We need to know what's going on here, and to do that we need information! Data, Data, Data! I can't make bricks without clay!"

"I know it's just... I need to get into the school..." Blondie stated pointing to the school which had been sealed off by a thick layer of vines.

"Alright people with sharp pointy things, get to work!" Mrs. Yaga stated tapping her foot impatiently and thumbing in the direction of the school. While Hunter led the charge to begin hacking away at the tree trunk like vines that had surrounded the school Apple sat down on her knees in front of Grimhilde's corpse.

"Feeling troubled little book worm?" Turning her head Apple saw Giles standing next to her.

"Oh sorry Mr. Grim, you must want this." Apple stated holding up the sheet of paper she put together to the head master's brother. Upon picking up the sheet of paper it glowed briefly before being absorbed into Giles body.

"Ah it's so good to be able to say what I mean without the riddlish bush beating!" Giles stated breathing a sigh of relief. "But I take it that what you learned about our resident undead spell caster while you were inside of the book with the people who knew her?"

"I... I still don't know about... all of this." Apple asked looking like she was going to be sick. "So many people died... just to protect..." Just to protect Snow White, the cursed family which thanks to the naive and stupid actions of one stupid little girl the entire continent had been shaped, one family who in spite of doing everything they can to keep the continent alive is demonized, another who in spite of doing nothing receives endless praise. "How... how did it all go so wrong?"

"If I might be so bold to suggest." Giles stated sitting down next to Apple. "I don't know what it was that Grimhilde did, but I do know what happened during that time period, so allow me to explain it to you." Giles held up one finger as if making a point. "Three hundred years ago, approximately two thousand people died all at once. With this drop in population, many individuals were forced to immigrate away, move in together out of sheer survival. The people of the south, with it's constant torrential rains, were experts in the construction of damns and used this knowledge to build many sturdy buildings in their new home, many of these buildings survive to this day, able to fend off all manner of monster and natural disaster. The people of the East were a hardy people, they brought with them many crops that grow rapidly under harsh conditions and were able to feed their many new neighbors during the hottest and coldest months of the year. The People of the West were hunters, their culture developed among some of the most savage beasts you'd ever know, as a result they were some of the finest hunters you'd ever meet able to fend off some of the toughest invaders. The people of the north lived in a great forest with many herbs and knowledge of healing, so these people were able to cure many of the ailments that had chased others from their homes. From four separate calamities, four different kinds of people came together from many corners of the world, bringing with them their differences that managed to aid one another through trying times. With their respective skills and abilities combined they declared that they would live Happily Ever After." Apple's back shot straight up at the realization of what she had been told. "Our past is past, our experiences shape who we are as a people, and surviving hardships makes us grow stronger. If you wish to avenge the people who died so others might live, then live for them and remember their name."

"Huu." Apple curled up as she started breathing deeply. "I need to call Raven, do we know where she is?"

"She wasn't inside when the undead monster threw the shack into the orchard." Ramona stated appearing behind Apple.

"She went after the walking sushi platter with Darling and the others, she's likely been thrown into the Wonder Well with them." Faybelle chimed in helpfully while brushing dirt off of herself.

"Are they okay?" Apple asked looking concern.

"You tell me dumbass you saw her the last time we did!" Faybelle snapped, clearly she was as concerned as the rest of them.

"Miss Thorn Miss Wolf I was wondering if I could ask your assistance with something." Giles stated as he led the two of them away. "Concerning the matters of my brother and the first Evil Queen I was wondering if you knew..."

Apple tuned out her surroundings as she got out her mirror Phone. She found the text log between herself and Raven, and noticed that her phone seemed to be interpreting today as yesterday based on the way that it cut off her last series of distressed texts to Raven.

"How long was I in that book. Well I suppose it was a life time for the people inside." Saying that Apple sent a text to Raven asking her how she was, but was soon met with something rather distressing. According to her text log, the message she had just sent was dated in June, approximately nine months after the one she sent her yesterday. "MRS. YAGA!"

The crooked nosed witch in question came over and examined Apple's phone, the way that she rubbed her chin seemed to confirm Apple's worst fears. This was reality, and it was bad.

"Huu. That's what I was afraid of." Mrs. Yaga stated putting her hands on her hips.

"What is it? What are you afraid of!?" Apple asked a desperate look on her face.

"The only reason why the Legacy orchard appeared to us is because the curse forcibly dragged it out of wherever it goes when it's not here, when the curse left it went back to where it belonged, which evidently seems to be the future. And it took everything and everyone who was inside of it at the time with it." Apple's face contorted in horror as Mrs. Yaga continued. "We need to do research. We're nine months behind, Morgan could be god mother knows where doing who knows what with her daughter."

"WHAT!?" Apple shrieked standing straight up.

"Mr. Sparrow attempted to contact young Miss Queen shortly after you went into the book and instead learned that she had been conversing with Grimhilde." Apple frantically began sending out text after Text for Raven. "It should be noted that Morgan ended the call with with Sparrow by smashing the phone with a rock."

"YEAAAARRRGGG!" With a frustrated howl that was not remotely lady like Apple threw the phone to the ground with sufficient force that it cracked on contact before she stormed off. "Hmm. Room yet for improvement I think. Still that Girl's rehabilitation is coming along smoothly." Mrs. Yaga stated smirking evily. "Ever After will be in serious trouble if another brainless pushover takes over during this time of crisis after all."

Ramona was in the process of digging six foot deep holes in front of the legacy orchard when Apple stormed over like a woman possessed and walked by Faybelle who was in the middle of growing something with a couple of pots full of dirt.

"Ah..."

"Leave her." Giles commanded without hesitation.

Apple entered the Orchard and shortly thereafter the book again, charging through the recreation of the Headmaster's office Apple was soon greeted by the sight of Milton Grim working at his desk. Not bothering to ask why the book changed who it decided to portray itself as she entered the mirror that would take her where she wanted to go.

"Grimhilde!" Apple had been returned to the first scene of the story, she presumed that meant that she could get out easy once she was done talking. For now though, she would have words. "We need to talk!" The two found a bench to sit down at while they discussed the matter at hand.

"I know little of what my descendant's plans are, you will have to compare what I tell you to whatever other information you and your friends can find." Grimhilde stated as she scratched her chin.

"What did she ask you about?" Apple asked cocking a confused brow.

"She wanted information on how to find the members of my tribe, where we hid, objects that can be used for divination and the like. I told her what she wanted to know with the warning that everything I know would likely be three hundred years out of date." Grimhilde stated holding her hands together. "And anything I can tell you would be nine months out of date."

"So you knew that would happen." Apple concluded recalling who it was that threw them into the Orchard.

"Morgan and I have a great many things in common. For Starters we both choose war and bloodshed as a solution to our problems, we both only ever cared for one person's life at any given point in time, and we both firmly believe that children have no place on the battlefield." Grimhilde looked Apple in the eye. "Morgan told me about that place, how it skips from time period to time period. Nine months is a lot of time for you to annoy that woman enough that she kills you."

"You think she would?" Apple asked looking scared.

"I've seen that look on her face, like someone on the war path and is intent on burning down anything and everything in her path. I've seen it before because I saw it on myself as I sacrificed hundreds to kill thousands." Grimhilde stated folding her hands together. "What scares me most about her isn't her level of power but what she's done to get it."

"What did she do to herself?" Apple asked looking afraid.

"Aside from changing herself to let that monster stay inside of her? Next to nothing. To reach that level I allowed myself to become host to a demonic parasite, replaced my blood with that of a vampire's, fused my spirit with no less than five different kinds of elemental genies, butchered a dragon for it's origin..." Grimhilde looked like she was going to continue but Apple stopped her. "My point is that you know how far I was willing to go to reach my level of power, so what will happen if Morgan, who is willing to go just as far, does the same?"

"Yes Yes Morgan is terrifying I knew this already." Apple stated waving dismissively.

"Huu. You really are my daughter's descendant." With that, Grimhilde seemed to have found her resolve. "There are various safe houses as you would call them: natural pockets in the earth formed from water and rain hollowing away at the earth which were then drained away."

"I found one when I was a child, magical script was written on the walls are you saying that they've been hiding down there all this time?" Apple asked looking surprised.

"Unlikely, they got a lot bolder after I took over as queen. But their belongings, items that can be used to trace their current location, those are more then likely still down in one of those. As for what she wants with them you will have to ask her that."

"Thanks for your help." Apple stated standing up. "If you want to help me I would appreciate you book marking the page of the book from before we met Blue Beard." Apple was confused by the request but nodded her head in understanding.

* * *

Apple went back the way that she came, when she got outside she saw that Ramona had dug two six foot deep holes in front of the Legacy orchard and Faybelle had prepared two burlap sacks with tree's sticking out of them.

"Did I miss something?" Apple asked looking confused.

"Funeral, we're just about to call over the rest of the students." Giles stated simply, his tone of voice sounded like he was talking about something difficult.

"For Grimhilde right?" Apple asked curious, now that she thought about it, that lady didn't look like she ever got a proper burial, but then she saw the other hole that had been dug. "Who's that one for?"

"Alright I've stripped everything I needed from the batty old monster, we're ready to bury her and Old Man Grim." Ginger stated walking into the clearing, but stopping in front of Apple. "Oh..."

"Milton's dead?" Apple asked looking shocked.

"He sacrificed himself to facilitate the transfer of the books contents." Giles stated his finger tips digging into his arm. "I-I See." Apple stated her jaw quivering.

* * *

Morgan had been spending a lot of time here, co-ordinating her invasion of the continent, this darkened depressing looking place that she had brought Raven to. Not that Raven actually knew what this place was or where it was, her mother was being annoyingly cryptic about that particular piece of extremely relevant information. Every couple of days Morgan would go out through the same mirror she brought her here with and come back with word of someone else willing to do violence on her behalf, then she would throw herself into research to find someone else.

"Which one is it this time? The Undersea kingdom?" Raven asked cocking a suspicious brow.

"They took offense to those people sending someone to impersonate their heir and are intrigued by the opportunity to expand upon their domain. I need to do the proper negotiations with Ursula to make it official." Morgan stated as she sat down at a table and pulled out another file.

"Before you run off again, you should know that I made ourselves Dinner." Raven stated in a manner of fact voice. "You remember our deal right?"

"I'm aware. What are we having?" Morgan asked cocking a interested brow.

"Boarbatusk and salad." Saying that, Nevermore pushed in a large stewing pot full of floating chunks of meat into what was the two witches dining room. "Can't believe I have to remind a grown woman to eat properly." Raven stated shaking her head. They had been going on like this for months, while Morgan was out begging, borrowing, bargaining and stealing her way into alliances she was stuck in this place acting as a maid for her. Raven wasn't being forced to do the chores for Morgan, but aside from that and studying magic Raven had no windows and no doors that led out of this place, and Morgan's Mirror wasn't letting her out any time soon. "So the Sea witch is next eh?" Raven asked as she extracted a chunk of maroon colored meat from the cooking pot. "I take it the last safe house you raided didn't yield anything useful then?"

"I found a ring belonging to one of the sorcerers." Morgan stated throwing a golden ring on the table as Raven carved off a chunk of meat for her mother. "The divination spell led me to a grave in Riordan's capital." Morgan stated as she picked up a knife and fork and began carving into the meat.

"What did he have to say?" Raven knew that for a seasoned necromancer like Morgan death was no obstacle for information gathering.

"Not much, his actions weren't significant enough that he had a lot to answer for in the after life." Morgan stated her tone somewhat frustrated as she explained the situation. "He likely moved on quickly through the grinder and on to the living." The amount of time someone spent in the afterlife usually depends upon what one has done while they were alive, the more you did the longer they kept you around before wiping your soul clean and sending you back to be reincarnated, according to Morgan anyway.

"Another dead end then?" Raven asked as she prepared a chunk of meat for Nevermore. "I'll bring this down stairs with the other knick knacks after we eat."

Even though Morgan has been steadily building a army for months now, her real goal was to find a select few individuals who she had reason to believe were truly deserving of her wrath, wrath that she intended to execute with impunity.

"What about you? Are you adjusting okay?" Morgan asked before she tore off a chunk of meat and ate it hungrily.

"Aside from being locked inside of this pit with no means by which to contact the outside world? The Ifrit isn't as nice as the Djinn was."

One of the first things Morgan did after bringing Raven here was go back to the village Raven visited a while ago and picked up the Ifrit that she had summoned spur of the moment. Using the same ritual as the one that they used to shove the Djinn inside of her body The Ifrit soon found itself at home inside of the space formerly occupied by the Obscuris as well.

"That's what you get for doing things backwards."

As Raven recalled her Baba explaining the process to her, the four Genies, a Djinn, a Ifrit, a Dao and a Maride were implanted in a ritually prepared basket which is made out of the threads formed from her spirit being bound to her body. These Genies would then facilitate the process of binding Raven to the land of Riordan thus allowing the royal family to regulate the large portions of magical power that pumps through the land on a daily basis and preventing it from winding up a unstable mass of magical primordial soup like Wonderland. Normally the order was Dao, The earth based magic providing a solid foundation, Maride the water based magic having a calming effect on what would otherwise be a highly unstable mass of magic, Djinn, whose air based magic could flexibly handle the output of magic, and Ifrit whose fire based magic would burn off anything that Raven herself couldn't handle. The fact that Raven had done this process backwards was at the root of many of her current health problems.

"How's the process summoning the Dao coming along?" Morgan asked taking a bite of salad.

"Slow, ritual summoning is called ritual summoning for a reason this normally takes about ten people to pull off. Even if, as you claim this place was made for summoning genies!" Raven stated twitching in anger. "It would be better if I had help." Alas this seemed to be the one area that Morgan lacked in, being so powerful on her own she had no need for rituals and being purveyor of the dark arts she never touched the subject of Genies.

"Maybe we should try some outside help." Morgan stated scratching at her chin.

* * *

 **Review Section** :

Zwei Eis: After going through all of that she deserves a little bit of praise. Not burn, he's thinking more like liberal application some kind of blunt instrument.

Jascmaster: Quite easily. Apparently. I see your confusion, when Robin Hood said various other magical creatures he was referring to sapient creatures: Goblins, trolls, elf and the like. Also, the Queen family has been known to make limited use of shape shifting powers to take on the traits of powerful magical animals when they deem it necessary.

Raven: That's a lot of reviews. Thank you for your comments.

DJ: Thank you for saying so. Simply put, the story of the Evil Queen is about Grimhilde, someone else signing the first slot in the book can only be seen as a act of unparalleled disrespect to her.

Wade: When one problem is solved another ten takes it's place.

Charlie: Glad you feel so, but remember that Apple has collected all of the pieces of the book now.


	61. Chapter 61

**Author's Note** : Sorry about not leaving a note last week, I was in a bit of a bad place and simply forgot. Either way, Read, Review, Favorite and Enjoy!

* * *

Chapter 61: They Have Returned Smok

Raven was in the floor that she believed was the bottom most floor of the facility her mother had brought her to. According to Morgan this entire place was created with the singular intent of summoning Dao's for the Royal family. That said Raven would still need practice, by now she had learned astral projection using the Djinn as a medium to enter the spirit realm, she hoped to be able to find the giant mass of magical power known as a Dao and negotiate entering her spiritual basket but she was having trouble finding the thing. After another fruitless morning Raven reawoke and spotted her mother off to the side in front of her chart. A large tack board featuring a map, pictures and a web of red string connecting various points together. Raven invoked the image of a paranoid conspiracy theorist in her head, which she supposed was appropriate given her mothers current state of mind.

"And?" Raven asked already suspecting what the answer would be.

"We're going to go see Ursula today." Morgan stated staring at the board.

"We? Does she have a lead on these people you're trying to hunt down?" Raven asked looking suspicious.

"She will help you to summon a Maride." Morgan stated in a even tone of voice.

"I thought we needed the Dao first?" Raven asked looking confused.

"Dao, Maride, Djinn and Ifrit are the recommended order, one that you have already violated. But thanks to me you body is already unusually well adapted for tanking ludicrous amounts of Magical power going through it." Morgan explained bluntly. "It means that you will have to stay off the frontlines until you get the Dao, but I am okay with that scenario."

"Fine. So can we at least check on them on our way over?" Raven asked cocking a brow at her mother. "Or have you forgotten that it's the time of year where the Legacy Orchard is supposed to appear?"

"I've sent some people to check on them already, we'll be getting word back soon, if possible I'd prefer that they simply stay there and not bother us." Morgan explained in a rather ominous tone of voice.

"And who or what are these people that you sent to investigate?"

* * *

Apple had been brought into Mrs. Yaga's office inside of the shack, the others were still trying to get into the school itself, but for now they needed to talk. Apple recalled that Mrs. Yaga was Raven's, and for that matter various other 'evil' individuals guidance councilor, and as such was probably the closest thing they had to a proper therapist.

"Did you know the Book was full of lies?" Apple asked barely able to make eye contact with the witch.

"Do you know why they are called Fairy Tales?" Mrs. Yaga asked as she used a stir straw to mix together the contents of her cup while Apple Shook her head in the negative. "There is a old saying: Never trust a fairy. It is based largely on the fairy's reputation as tricksters and scoundrels, it's not important to the point I'm making." Mrs. Yaga smirked as if she was in on a joke of which Apple was at the butt of. "If a fairy cannot be trusted, then why would you ever trust one of their 'tales?'"

"You knew that?" Apple asked looking shocked.

"I'm very old little girl, I have seen wars, massacres and witch hunts. I know that if a human ever considered something to be a good thing then they would never name it after a magical creature." Mrs. Yaga stated prompting Apple to recoil in surprise. Briefly.

"You knew all along, and you didn't tell us!?" Apple asked a hint of barely contained rage under her breath.

"Your insistence on hanging up on insignificant trivialities is going to get you killed one of these days." Mrs. Yaga stated putting the cup down. "I don't focus on the past dear, it gets in the way of the present."

"Oh but it can influence it." Apple stated in a dark tone of voice. "There are things that need doing and corrections that need to be made."

"Are any of those going to help Raven?" Apple nodded slightly in response. "Then I suggest you focus on those first." Mrs. Yaga stated leaning back into the chair. "Now is there something you actually need to talk about? Before you go about waging any wars you need to clear your head first."

"... The book updates itself every time someone new is added to it." Apple stated taking a deep breath. "My mom registered me when I was born so the book updated it's Snow White to have my face." While it was true that signing the book was needed to actually receive it's benefits, a signer can register their child for their role, thus making sure that no one else can take the role unless the registered person gave up the role. Which point of interest, was exactly what Apple intended to do at this time. "All the horrible things that were done to her, I saw done to me, not only that but..." Apple gulped a couple of times before she continued. "Daring, and my mother's dwarfs, I watched them do horrible things to Schnee, to Snow White."

"And thus the reason why you've been avoiding Daring is made known." Sparrow was in the chair Apple is currently sitting in earlier, after he stopped gagging he explained what he learned of Blue Beard when he went to steal back the book of legends. Daring as the most prominent of the school's roughly sixty Charming students and the one assigned to the role of Snow White's Prince Charming would have had his face plastered over Blue Beards. Perhaps she should use this as an opportunity to cure the Charming boy of his stupidity, but that was a matter for another day. "It is important to remember that the person you saw wasn't you, nor are they the people you know. If you don't wish to create unnecessary tension between yourself and them then you must explain however much of the situation your traumatized little brain can muster. Or failing that, the doorway leading into the Book of Legends is still open so shoving them inside can be a great work around so long as you don't mind inflicting the same trauma on them." Mrs Yaga explained casually shrugging her shoulders.

"You really don't hold back do yah?" Apple asked sniffling.

"And what has holding back done in raising you? Hmm?" Mrs. Yaga asked knowing that her logic was infallible. "I'll be blunt, think clearly about what you want, and what you'll have to do to accomplish that. Push everything else off to the side."

"Thanks. I imagine that you have a lot of other people that you need to talk to." Apple stated in a sad tone of voice.

"The old man has mandated that everyone get mandatory psyche evals. But most of the people were inside of the girl's dorm room that Mira has been turning into a magical fortress. I doubt that most will require a second visit. You are a exception and I will be seeing you in here again within days am I understood?" Mrs. Yaga stated in a uncompromising tone of voice.

"Yes madam." Apple stated nodding her head.

Apple was admittedly lost a tiny bit as she made her way through the shack's interior, when she came to what might be Balcony she looked over the courtyard, she looked to the girl's dorm where Faybelle emerged from her's and Raven's balcony carrying a sack full of their things. The mountain of protective enchantments Mira plastered the girl's dorm with clearly wasn't enough to stop the vines from tying up the building like they had with the others. Faybelle therefore, as one of a handful of individuals who could fly, was given the thankless task of retrieving her classmates belongings after nine months of absence, though the fairy had immediately called dibs on Raven's and Apple's room.

"As I feared." Faybelle stated dropping down on the same Balcony as Apple was standing on. "Your taste in clothing is horrific."

"Did you volunteer to get our things from our room just so that you could poke through my closet?" Apple asked a scathing glare in her eyes.

"No actually I wanted raid Raven's supply closet." Faybelle held up a vial with a dragon's tooth inside the length of a pocket knife. "I'm going to do great things with this little puppy."

"Is that one of Nevermore's teeth?" Apple asked looking confused.

"Raven's been bottling them and selling them to the goblins for years now." Like a shark, Nevermore had multiple redundant sets of teeth, as old teeth wore out they would fall out and new ones would grow in. While fresh Dragon's teeth were very sharp, as Apple learned when she used Nevermore to clear away a set of fallen trees which were blocking a path into the school grounds, old ones were much too dull to be used as cutting implements hence Apple was quite confused as to what Faybelle wanted with it. "The little buggers are always making strange things out of strange things, Nevermore's bits have a lot of unique properties from what I hear." Apple nodded her head as it only made sense, Nevermore was specially bred by generations of Evil Queens, continuously fed buffing type foods and given enhancement spells.

"Right. Well..." Apple looked down at the vines that was the source of so much trouble. "I was wondering if we could use these vines to do anything."

"And as my family created them we naturally know everything to know about them." Faybelle stated rolling her eyes. "What do you need to know?"

"Ever After's soil, while it can grow plants, it can't grow edible plants, if these things can be used to extract the toxic alchemical by product of the dwarfs experiments that will change." Apple explained, frankly she was glad to be talking about something that had nothing to do with fairy tales for a while. "My problem is if in the process of extracting said toxins does it take the nutrients in the soil to grow edible plants too? If so then the next problem is how to separate the toxins from the nutrients, or how to replace the nutrients once lost."

"Is that so?" Faybelle stated nodding in approval. "You can't grow this many plants on magic alone, it is likely that every drop of nutrition has been sucked out of the soil making all of these things, along with most likely all of the toxins you're talking about."

"So then, how to replace the lost nutrition?" Apple wondered aloud holding her chin in her hand.

"There's not enough dung in the world to replace this." Faybelle stated gesturing to the vine covered ground. "What you need is a filter. Speaking of which I pity whoever Morgan's got at the center of this." Faybelle stated looking like she had seen something unpleasant.

"What does that mean?" Apple asked looking concerned.

"The plants are designed to keep you alive for a hundred years, part of how they do that is continuously feeding you nutrients from the ground. If the soil is as you claim toxic..." Faybelle stated gesturing to the ground. "Then the person at the center of all of this is going to be quite dead soon." Apple stated having come to a disturbing realization.

"Now don't get me wrong, your idea to use the plants to filter out the toxins is quite brilliant and all, but in order to do that you'd need a creature that can not only survive the strain of the toxins but thrive off of it, as well." Faybelle stated smiling knowingly.

"Is there something like that?" Apple asked looking befuddled.

"Now now, I can't do all the heavy lifting for you Apple." The princess puffed her cheeks in displeasure before turning to look at the school.

* * *

Hunter was using his ax to try and carve his way through the front door of the school, without much luck.

"God Mother what are those vines made of?" Hunter asked huffing with frustration. Suddenly the doors started to shake, like something was beating on the door from the other side, but there was a familiar light flashing from behind the door as well. "GET DOWN!" Hunter pounced on Dexter who was standing off to the side and knocked him out of the way of the door hands over their ears. The two looked confused for a moment and turned their heads to the door, unfortunately it picked that time to finally go down with one explosive blast. Through the smoke and fire came the familiar form of someone who bore the spitting image of the one at the center of this madness.

"Lovely, the lot of you have returned." Mrs. Shards stated glaring down at the two boys. "Bring the student body into the auditorium, there's something you should see." The Students had been gathered as the Mirror woman instructed, she readied the projector and using it she projected the image of a village recorded from high on a mountain range.

"In the hours after my sister's return to the world she went to a mountain range and made this video." The village was consumed in a mass of light, trees that framed the shot shook as the shock wave reached up the mountain and knocked the camera over. "That was the first of a dozen, another of my sister's lies as it turns out."

"I can attest to that." Darling appeared at the top of the stairs. She had grown in the past nine months, she was a good couple of inches taller, and she had built muscle she barely fit inside of that dwarf/goblin armor that was knicked for her, and she had scars on her face, three in a row off to the side like she got it from fighting some manner of unruly beast. "Morgan scooped up every village on the border between Riordan and Ever After and dumped them in Wonderland under the illusion of a insta-death curse years ago, replacing them in our world with chunks of glamoured earth and populated with golems."

"Not so coincidentally those same elaborate stages Morgan spent so much time crafting were wiped out without a trace along with a great many individuals who have made it their business to harass Riordan's royal family over the years." The most gratuitous example of overkill for an assassination any of them have ever seen or heard of. "After that particular incident, a emergency meeting was held in Ever After between the various noble family's." The next image was a variable whose who of Ever After's upper echelons, one lady of note was a woman with a vague resemblance to Briar more commonly known as Hermione Beauty. The woman's appearance here wasn't note worthy for her actually doing anything, but rather it was someone putting a arrow through her hand. As a consequence a giant mass of vines erupting from her hand consuming the entire room and the camera used to record the meeting.

"That would be the source of the vines, one of the consequences is that I, who is immune, and Darling, who was in Wonderland, are two of the only people left in the country who are not under the influence of the vines sleeping curse." As established during Sleeping Beauty's story, the vines do not affect those who enter the effected area after the curse has been cast, otherwise Prince Charming would not have been able to get to the center of that mess to cure Sleeping Beauty of her affliction. "Everyone, and everything else, seems to be working for Morgan."

"'Everything?'" Apple asked looking concerned, before that is the entire building shook.

"It would seem that my sister is quite good at making deals with unruly pests." Mrs Shards stated as she went to the back door of the Auditorium. Apple followed the walking mirror to the back door, where through the bars of vines on the other side of the doorway Apple saw several dragons land outside, and the tail of a big one swing past the door.

"Dragons!?" Mrs. Shards pushed Apple aside and put her finger to her lips. " _There are dragons here that's the 'unruly pest' you were talking about!?_ "

Mrs. Shards forced her way past the vines and into the courtyard of the school.

"I'm here Brogan you miserable overgrown hand bag now get down here before you crush the building!" Suddenly a loud crash sounded outside the courtyard as the owner of that massive tail which was lazily singing past the door just a moment ago dropped down. He was approximately a quarter of the size of Smok, at the most thrice the size of Nevermore, on the subject of which he looked like her as well. A huge black dragon with four legs, two wings, a tail that ended in a fan of tail spikes, the difference laid with their horns though, Nevermore had twin ridges that lined her head like eyebrows, fin like ears to either side, but this guy? One horn and one ear with holes in it, but not with any sense of symmetry, like someone or something ripped or rather broke the side of his head off, and there were stripes of lighter or darker scales, but they weren't natural, they were scars, his entire body was full of scars. If Nevermore was a student, then this was a warrior.

"What do you care if the building is destroyed mirror?" The dragon identified as Brogan asked as he clipped the corner of the auditorium. "Last I checked you hate this place!"

"You may recall that a few of my colleagues were put into a comatose state by the vines beneath your claws." Mrs. Shards stated gesturing to the ground below the dragon.

"So you've brought them into the Auditorium?" The dragon asked incredulous.

"I've been bored so for the past nine months, so I've taken to propping them up around the school in positions that amuse me." On the subject of which it quickly became apparent that the walking Mirror was correct about one thing, the teachers were inside of the auditorium. Turning around Apple was surprised to see Mrs. White Queen tapping her on the shoulder, the other teachers were leading the student body through one of the school's many mirrors and Apple soon followed suit.

"Morgan told us the legacy Orchard reappeared, that means the trouble makers are back, now where are they!?" Brogan demanded in angry tones.

Suddenly a group of Dragons came over carrying Mrs. Yaga's shack which they promptly dropped in front of Brogan.

"I do not pretend to read the crone's mind. I can only assume she took one look at this mess, shook her head in dismay, and promptly escorted the student body to the well of wonder." Mrs. Shards stated looking for dirt beneath her finger nails.

"Go to..." Brogan was interrupted, by the looks of things he was magically receiving a message from someone. Suddenly he spun around and tore the roof off of the auditorium, and looked down inside as the last of the students entered the mirror leading out of the Auditorium. "After them, now!" A bang went off in Brogan's ear as Mrs. Shards fired off one of her wands at his head.

* * *

Mr. Charming used a short sword to smash the mirror from the side of the mirror realm and for extra measure lodged the weapon in the mirror to keep it from regenerating, just in time to stop the dragons from getting in.

"How did you guys break free from the curse!?" Apple asked looking confused.

"An old hack from our school days, evidently puppy love counts as true love." By which Mr. Charming was referring to an actual puppy, in other words Hermione was snapped out of her sleep by the true love of a dog. "According to the mirror Morgan kept Hermione away from her for years with that embarrassing little truth."

"Where did the dragons come from!?" Apple asked watching as the teachers herded the students around the mirror realm.

"There's a mountain full of them." The White Queen stated as she smashed another mirror the moment she saw another dragon in it. "Morgan apparently bribed them with Nevermore's pups. First crack at trying to woo them from what I hear."

"How bad do these things want to get laid?" One dragon stuck it's head through the mirror and Sparrow stabbed it in the eye with a arrow. "They're going through all this trouble and they're not even going to get their payment for like sixteen years or something!?"

"What's sixteen years for something that lives for a thousand?" Mr. Bear asked as the arm of Brogan reached through one of the mirrors and tried to grab him. "Besides, Morgan sent her pet there to chase all of them out of the mountain."

"Her pet?" Apple asked sounding confused.

"The special Raven did! About her family's guardians!" Blondie shouted a horrified realization on her features.

Every Evil Queen had one, a protector raised from birth with their master like a sibling, tailor bred and trained as a warrior unlike anything most had ever seen, and as this dragon, Brogan, Morgan's Dragon, removed his claws from the mirror realm so that he could look inside at his quarry.

* * *

 **Review section** :

Raven: Indeed.

Zwei Eis: I will never get tired of people saying that they enjoy my stories. But yes, Rapple is my main, I did mention that Hunter and Ashlyn are going out, and that Cupid is being all stalkery with Dexter right now.

Jacsmaster: Producing a child with a non sapient animal entails more complications than what it is worth, that is to no one never plowed one.

DJ: True. The Hatchlings have been left in the care of a experienced Dragon nursery and Nevermore makes regular visits with Morgan. Some of Morgan's new allies who are equally concerned with the fact that she hasn't eaten anything during her entire sentence inside of that mirror as Raven is have been sending chunks of food through every couple of days. Morgan does have her sympathizers, and not everyone angry with Riordan are idiotic racist duchebags.

Wade: True. They have to wake up first. She will, but she'll need a little bit of help first.

Charlie: Well that's the wonderful thing about horrific disasters you have no time to mourn the previous one because you have another horrific disaster avert.


	62. Chapter 62

**Author's** **Note** : Not much to say right now, my mom's feeling better so that helps resolve some of the issues that I've been having for the past week. Read, Review, Favorite and Enjoy!

* * *

Chapter 62: We Have a Mystery to Solve, Princess Charming

They were starting to run out of things that they could use to break the mirrors, not to mention that at some point in time they actually had to escape from this monster infested death trap of a school, and destroying every door in sight was rather counterproductive towards this end. But what could they do with the dragons on the other side of the mirrors trying to get into the school.

"I have an idea!" Blondie suddenly shouted spotting one of the Mirrors that led to her room. "Everyone through here!" Blondie dived through the mirror that led to her room and the student body were quickly evacuated through the mirror into the girl's dorm room.

Brogan's subordinates informed the older dragon of where the student body was evacuating to, the girl's dorm, and the dragon maneuvered to strike even with the magic mirror taking pot shots at him along the way, the dragon fired off it's flame breath at the dorm room. A magic symbol shaped like a arrow suddenly pushed the fire away from the dorm room, another of Mira's defenses put in place, because clearly the magical barrier door hinges weren't over kill enough.

"This is getting ridiculous!" Saying that, Apple stormed out of Blondie's room and onto her balcony, in spite of the efforts of other students to block her way.

By now Apple had learned that dragons had a immunity or resistance against her ability to control animals. Nevermore seemed to listen to her because she liked her, but she couldn't make her do anything she didn't want to do, and Smok simply ignored anything she told him to do. That said Apple already had enough abuse from that damned book, and these dragons were pushing her to her breaking point, rage and suicidal depression as it turned out made for excellent courage.

"Get over here now!" Apple demanded, glaring at Brogan in the eye, and pointing her finger downwards accusingly.

"Apple are you crazy!?" Daring shouted, reaching out to grab the young princess and attempting to pull her back inside.

"Big mouth for someone so small!" Brogan commented looking rather amused.

"I know that you aren't allowed to hurt us unless we're armed, which point of interest most of us are not!" Apple snapped tapping her foot impatiently. "So what's the plan here? Cower us into submission? Snatch us up and drop us in a hole some where so that we can't bring Raven to safety?"

"And what is your plan?" Brogan asked sounding somewhat amused, picking Apple up around her waist and raising her to his eye level. "Natter here in my ear while your little friends make something that will allow you lot to some how escape from our grasp?"

"No. You are going to take me to Morgan and Raven, and you are going to do it right now!" Apple's voice was brimming with anger, there was not a single hint of hesitation in it, this wasn't a bluff, but a declaration of absolute fact.

"And why would I want to do that little girl?" Brogan asked laughing on his breath.

"Because I'm the one who knows where what Morgan has been looking for is!" Apple stated confident in her conclusion. Brogan gave an annoyed click of his tongue in response.

"Make sure they get some food." On Brogan's order a few of the dragons took off into the air and flew off into the distance, simultaneously several of the students stomachs started growling, and many of them were wondering about when the last time that they ate was.

* * *

Apple was brought into the Headmaster's office and brought before a vanity, Milton's personal communication type magic mirror. The dragon pointed a claw at the mirror and a magic symbol left his claw and flew into it, soon the image of a familiar witch who was packing for a trip appeared in the mirror.

"Brogan what do you..." Then Morgan noticed the presence of Apple. "What is she doing here?"

"She claims that she possesses information relating to what you are looking for." Brogan stated his tone that of someone who did not believe what he said.

"And what would that be?" Morgan's tone of voice indicated that she agreed with Brogan's assessment.

"I know where what's left of Grimhilde's tribe is." Apple stated her tone didn't betray a single hint of doubt in her words.

"Do you now?" Morgan asked vaguely interested.

"Yes. And you will get no more out of me until I know that Raven and Nevermore are safe!" Apple snapped glaring into Grimhilde's eyes.

"That isn't how this works little girl." Morgan stated, as her hand suddenly went through the mirror and into Apple's head.

Daring was in the mirror, butt naked as he swung his hips back and forth, into the mummified remains of a young woman no less. The revolting image was enough that it pushed Morgan out of Apple's head and back onto her side of the mirror, Brogan, equally as over protective with Morgan as Nevermore was with Raven, slammed his claws down and pinned Apple to the floor.

"Are you alright? What did you do to her!?" Brogan's rage reverberated through out his voice, were it not for whatever binding magic he was on, he would have doubtlessly just crushed Apple right now.

"I was inside of the Book, and I saw a play based on the life of my ancestors." Apple spat something out that clicked as it skipped along the floor. "How'd you like it?"

"Release her." Morgan stated bluntly.

"Master!" Brogan protested briefly.

"Release. Her." Brogan removed his claws from Apple's form allowing the princess to get up on shaky legs and climb into the Headmaster's chair as she got into a staring contest with one of the most terrifying people to ever live. "If you mean to intimidate me then I'm sorry to disappoint you: In the past twenty four hours I've been attacked by undead warriors, witnessed the repeated and brutal rape of my doppelganger by people who wear the faces of people that I consider to be friends before they in turn were brutally killed themselves and lets not forget attacked by dragons. Do. Better!"

Morgan saw that look before, every day when she saw her face in her prison for the better part of the past decade.

"You are going to be troublesome." Morgan stated letting out a sigh.

* * *

Boarbatusk, tenderized by being dropped from unfathomable heights, and fire roasted via dragon's breath. Not what any of them thought they would be eating when they got up that morning, or rather when they got up about nine month's ago as Briar noted, contrary to their expectations it wasn't the dragons who were eating it either, least not all of it. They took turns watching them, fetching food for both themselves and the students, they didn't care remotely what they were doing either, just so long as the stayed put. This school had become a prison, they were the prisoners, and the dragons were the wardens.

"Apple has been gone for a while." Briar noted watching the school where the big dragon had taken Apple.

"What do you think the queen of crazy is gonna do with Apple when she realizes she don't know what she wants to know?" Darling asked, whispering into Briar's ear.

"Something extremely violent if I had to guess." Briar stated after swallowing her spit.

"It can't be that hard to figure out what it is. I over heard the nut case talking to Raven before she sent the dead and damned on yah." Darling stated as she led Briar somewhere they could talk privately.

"What was she talking about?" Briar asked looking concerned.

"Obscuris's, lots of them, or rather the lack there of." Briar's face scrunched in confusion at Darling's odd choice of words. "You know Morgan's story ain't all that uncommon, for the most part, witch gets raised in witch hating lands with witch hating belief's, so their magic turns in on itself, and turns into something commonly known as a Obscuris. Now that we know that, the next question becomes why haven't we been seeing them?"

"Most of the time, one of two things happens." Both girls turned their heads to face Mira who had sneaked up on them. "1. Agents of Riordan's royal family, myself included, find them first and rehabilitate them towards slightly less suicidal tendencies. 2. They are executed via one of a variety of painful methods that the hunters are so fond of, there by preventing death by curse, thereby preventing the emergence of a Revenant/Obscuris."

"You said usually, which also means that occasionally something else happens as well." Darling stated in a understanding tone of voice.

"The ones who slip through two sets of nets, ours and the witch hunters. Those would be Morgan's obscuri." Mira stated sitting down and picking at the girl's share of roast meat as one of the dragons stalked by. "Never seen one turn myself, so I can only speculate. I do know that a Obscuris is a curse, I can tell you first hand what they do to people and it's fatal bare the briefest of contacts. When a person is cursed to death they typically become a Revenant, bound to the ones responsible for ending them, with that logic the Obscuris should make a brief but notable appearance that should typically end with the ending of the local witch hunters thus preventing anymore repeat instances from occurring in the near future."

"But that isn't happening now is it?" Darling asked looking quite sure of herself.

"No. There is a dedicated task force whose singular purpose is to track such individuals down, and there is a disturbing number of instances where we simply fail to turn up any information about them or their corpses." Mira stated folding her hands together.

"So let's assume that these people are disappearing because they turned into Obscuris/Revenants. Whaa...?" Briar asked before she fell asleep still sitting up, Darling slammed her fist on the table. "Ahem... Why?"

"Raven and Morgan hold the answer to that." Mira stated knowingly.

"Right, they've got, or had rather, Obscuris's..."

"Obscuri." Mira corrected.

"Right. Obscuri, which apparently creates a unlimited supply of magic. Who would want something like that?" Briar asked furrowing her brows. "I mean, we all got magic, Darling's hair pauses time every five seconds, Hopper spends more time as a frog then human. But most of us aren't like you Mira, we got magic but we can't use magic."

"Then there's only one explanation, a mage is the one who is responsible for the disappearance of these afflicted individuals." Mira stated her chin in her hand.

"To help them, or for something else?" Briar asked looking confused. "An unlimited supply of magical power for someone who can create a means of siphoning it away would be quite valuable." Mira commented scratching at her chin.

"Does that even make any sense? I mean how long has this been going on?" Briar asked, before her face slammed into the table and the sound of snoring emanated.

"Oi lizard face!" The nearest dragon, a four legged winged creature with a white lion's mane, seemed to take notice of the group. "We're nine month's behind on our classes, we're eating in the library today, are you going to get in our way or am I gonna have to make you?" The dragon growled at Darling. "Make you it is." Darling tossed her hair off to the side and used the moments in which time had been stopped to grab the dragon by it's snout, hold it down and shoved her thumbs into the nostrils of the beast. When time started again the beast was very surprised to find itself suffocating and fell unconscious.

"Great. You got a second part of this plan Darling?" Mira asked somewhat sarcastically.

"As a matter of fact."

* * *

Using the dragon as a stretcher, the knight in training and witch carried Briar to the school's library, the unusual thing was how they were carrying them. Darling had the furry beast's jaws around her arm, and Mira had it's tail wrapped around her waist, though the reason for this unusual method of carrying became apparent when the lot of them dropped low to the ground when one of the other dragons spotted them.

"This is either the craziest or smartest idea I've ever heard." Mira snapped her opinion clearly that of the first.

"Keep walking this isn't going to fool those stupid lizard's forever." Darling snapped as the two of them continued onto the library with their passenger and prisoner in tow.

When the dragon woke up it found it's limbs and mouth bound by twine, and books, lots and lots of books.

"Okay, so how long has this been going on?" Darling asked looking at Mira.

"The blatant racism was always there, jealousy, ignorance, other things that will likely make myself sound bias about the subject. But after the rampage of the first Evil Queen our old Friend Grimhilde things took a significant turn for the worst." Mira explained as she dropped a book in front of the sleeping Briar, thus waking her up and rendering her very confused by her surroundings.

"So our timeline starts three hundred years ago." Darling wrote the day in question down on the top left corner of the white board she procured from the front. "We need people who are around today who were around back then."

"Most if not all of the individuals on that list are going to be mages or magical beings." Mira stated unhelpfully.

"Is there anyone who isn't a magical creature?" Darling asked shrugging her shoulders.

"Captain James Hook, a human pirate ship captain who found himself in Neverland one day and was soon made into it's resident watch dog by the fairy queen using a spell of immortality." Mira stated bluntly.

"Alright we'll classify him under unlikely." Darling stated listing Captain hook appropriately. "Mages can live up to a thousand years right? What about all the fairy tale ones?"

"Evil Fairy Maleficient, Good Fairy Grandmora, Candy Witch Frau Totenkinder, The Evil Sorcerer Rothbart, Ursula the Sea Witch, Baba Yaga..." Mira stated listing off names on the ends of her fingers.

"I get it, wow there are a lot evil's in that sentence." Darling stated rubbing her temples. "So the Revenants are undead monsters. How does someone hide something like that?"

"You camouflage it, as my mother says the best place to hide a needle is in a pile of needles." Mira stated tapping her finger tips together.

"Riordan." Briar stated getting up and going for some books. "The country that habitually employs undead workers for it's farms and mines and undead warriors to guard it's choke points." Briar came back with a map and several history books. "Here we got a air shot of Riordan." It was like a maze, natural and unnatural mountain, lake, river and canyon type formations mixed with man made walls and trenches used for everything from protection to irrigation. "And here we have choke points." Briar circled the areas where the various man made constructs and natural formations overlapped. "And here we have the farms." Briar circled the various stretches of yellow which indicated some kind of crop being grown there.

"Still a lot of territory to cover." Darling stated scratching her chin.

"Which is the reason why we look at land deeds." Briar slammed down a binder full of randomly assembled chunks of paper. "Thank the White Queen when you see her later by the way." Briar held up the history book and showed her two cohorts. "Riordan started making use of the undead as laborer's after the second Evil Queen, Hraban Konigan the first, took over the throne. The first one apparently left the idea open." Now Briar pulled up the land deeds and started pinning them to map. "There's a lot of names, most of these do business the goblins merchants guild." Briar commented looking at the various people gathered on the board. "But which one is the one we need?"

"As they say, it's not the destination but the journey." Darling commented, tracing a line through Riordan's boarders. "Mira do you guys look for revenants when you go looking for Obscuri?"

"We use to, it became rather pointless after so many failed attempts." Mira stated pushing up her glasses. "Which means that they have the means to camouflage themselves, or rather some other way of doing it." Darling stated before that is she had a thought, noticing the presence of one particular choke point that went all the way from the borders of Riordan. "The cursed attracts the cursed."

"What?" Briar asked looking at Darling funny.

"Something I remember people saying." Darling clarified before she continued.

"We got it backwards, no one is vanishing the Obscuri into Riordan, they're going there on there own." Darling stated looking at the pinned names. "A curse of retaliation, like a Revenant, will hunt down the ones responsible for invoking that curse and make them pay. It does not matter if they were the ones to strike the finishing blow." Oh how the pieces fall together. "So they chase down the ones responsible for ordering their death's, that they be persecuted and made to kill themselves in the most horrific of ways and suffer for all eternity because of it. They're attracted to other undead and follow the path of least resistance."

"That's nuts yah know right Darling?" Briar asked letting out a yawn. "Who in Riordan would order the Witch Hunters sent upon their own people?"

"The one responsible for feeding them. What did Raven sight when we asked her about that?" Darling asked already knowing the answer.

"Religious reasons." Mira replied catching on to what Darling was saying.

"And to what religion does Riordan subscribe?" Darling stated looking at Mira knowingly.

"Paganism, led by the Scar Backs." Mira replied having come to the same conclusion.

"And who has been the ones leading the investigation for the Obscuri?" Darling asked hands on the table and looking Mira in the eyes.

"The Scar Backs."

* * *

"You see your problem here..." Morgan stated, looking Apple in her eye, having half deduced, half bargained and half bluffed to reach the same conclusion that Darling, Mira and Briar had worked together to reached, she unfortunately still hadn't been able to acquire one key piece of information. "For you see, the fact that you knew who I was looking for was already a given, what you promised me was where they are."

* * *

 **Review Section** :

Zwei Eis: Welcome to Ever After High. I recall writing that they found her in the woods earlier and brought her into the Girl's dorm.

DJ: It's not too different from medieval practices, securing an alliance by promising to marry off your child to them. The difference here being that it's slightly more modern, get's more potential suitors involved, and makes them work harder because they have to earn the right to breed.

Jascmaster: They're a minority, it's not a practice entirely condoned, and unlike Ramona or Cerise Raven doesn't have any animal ancestor's within recorded history.

Wade: It's how I roll.

Charlie: I wasn't trying to make it seem unreasonably tough, but it did turn out that way I guess.


	63. Chapter 63

**Author's Note** : Nothing to say right now, Read, Review, Favorite and Enjoy!

* * *

Chapter 63: Time to Start Over, Ever After High

Daring was having a bit of a bad day, on top of being informed that his ancestor, the original Prince Charming, was apparently that huge undead that tried to kill them all but that he was also a serial killer/rapist/necrophiliac as claimed by Sparrow. Naturally Daring didn't believe such a ridiculous claim though Faybelle was... kind enough to point out that the Story Book of Legends would show him what his ancestor was really like. Now here Daring was, having had every sordid detail of every victim his ancestor had claimed shown and explained to him in detail. The number of times he's emptied his stomach, three, amount of hair he's ripped out, about ten percent, number of dragons poking at his body in fetal position, three.

"He's really not taking it too well." Dexter stated looking around the corner at the entrance to the legacy orchard. "Still, better him then me."

"Speaking of you're taking this way better then he did." Blondie commented as she attempted to notarize everything that was happening.

"Me and Darling always kinda figured that there was something fishy about good ol Prince Charming. They never put a name to any of the Prince Charming's, instead we had over a dozen different people with the same title from the same time period. That and I didn't actually _see_ how bad he was."

"So you always knew that the various Prince Charmings were the same person?" Blondie asked looking surprised. "Given the unlikely hood that so many historical figures of the same time period had the same name the most sound conclusion was that they were the same person. If they were the same person then the likelihood that the various stories they were involved in ended 'happily ever after' seems kinda..." Dexter pondered the question for a moment as he seemed to look for the right word for emphasis. "Low."

"We'll make a good reporter out of you yet!" Blondie stated clapping her hands together enthusiastically as she bounced up and down.

"Well it's a assumption I based on statistics and nothing else really. What's more interesting to me though is how did Morgan get all these dragons to cooperate with her?" Dexter asked as he scratched his head watching the various dragons laze around, watch them and not a heck of a lot else really.

"Well according to the crazy Mirror lady Morgan managed to pimp out Nevermore and her kids to them." Blondie stated scratching her chin.

"And they took that deal?" Dexter asked looking surprised.

"Well as I understand it dragon mating rituals is often a matter of survival of the fittest." Blondie stated taking out a book titled 'how to train your dragon' that Raven had loaned her. "Female dragons are very picky about their mates, they have to prove their hunting abilities, fend off a dozen males for the right, and more often then not the female as well."

"So in other words successful males are bad asses, then what does that say about these ones who had to negotiate with a third party for the right to reproduce." Then a sudden realization hit Dexter. "These dragons are losers!"

* * *

Raven was scrubbing down Nevermore, they would be going to visit the sea kingdom later today and it wouldn't be good if the dragon came in with the accumulation of dust, blood and dirt that she had built up over the past few days fighting against god knows who and what her mother has been getting her to do lately. On the subject of which, there was Raven's mother right now with a prisoner, the kind that has her approximate height and weight, which made Raven think that she had violated the terms of their agreement.

"Mother, who is that?" Raven asked making the displeasure in her voice audible.

"Now now, your little friend will be offended if you can't recognize her." Morgan stated in a condescending tone of voice. Morgan pulled the bag off of her prisoner's head revealing Apple, who looked completely physically and mentally exhausted.

"Apple are you okay!?" Raven asked grabbing Apple by both of her arms.

"Hey Raven, it's good to see you again." Apple stated in a weak voice before falling into Raven's arms.

"What did you do to her!?" Raven snapped glaring at her mother angrily.

"Nothing as bad as what she did to herself." As Morgan was about to explain what she believed happened she heard a noise coming from her office and walked back the way she came.

"Apple I swear if she hurt you...!" Apple cut Raven off by hugging her.

"It's good to see you too Raven." Apple stated smiling bitterly. "To answer your question though: Your mother just did a little bit of mind probing on me. Luckily recent events seems to have made my memories quite unpleasant to look at."

"Why was Mom probing your memories? No more important than that what happened to you that you've suddenly developed this weird mental resistance?" Raven asked her features thick with concern.

* * *

Morgan returned to her little office she made for herself and looked into her mirror, where she saw one of the students crash into the office riding on one of the dragons bare back.

"What the...?"

Morgan swiped the screen, Hopper had turned into a slightly smaller version of a leviathan and was using his new found agility to smack around the other dragons. A second swipe, Ramona in full wolf form had one by his tail and was smacking him around like a ragdoll. A third, Rosabella had turned into a fiend and picked two up around their torso's and smacked them together heads first. "Ugh. That's what I get for appealing to the most desperate demographic." Morgan stated smacking herself in her face.

"Brogan." Morgan let loose a final swipe and found her personal dragon, Brogan was out cold, likely from a sleeping potion, and the Hood boy was pinning him down using arrows and ropes. "Fuu. Why do I even bother?" Morgan turned the mirror back to the Head master's office, produced a concentrated mass of magic in her hand, and threw the make shift grenade through before cutting the connection to the other side. "Now, I should probably make sure that brat eats something and sleeps before I talk to her."

* * *

Back at the school, a large pile of unconscious dragons had been built up as the various students found elaborate and often painful methods of incapacitating them.

"I wonder if Mrs. Yaga has a dungeon or something in her shack?" Darling questioned as she surveyed their prisoners.

"More important then what we need to figure out what we're gonna do about Queen Crazy when we do find her." Sparrow stated as he stretched out his back muscles. "Are we sure we even want to go up against this crazy lady? I have to admit she makes a fair point in wanting us to stay out of trouble." Sparrow stated not at all looking forward to the prospect of being cursed by a witch, mauled by dragons or any of the other horrible fates that mad woman knows how to inflict upon them. "If we keep annoying her like this then one of these days she's gonna just say 'screw it' and drown us in the sea of blood along with everyone else."

"Fuu." Darling let out a sigh as she thought about it. "You make a fair point. But a lot of our people's parents were caught up in that thorny nightmare and it's going to be a hard sell to them to just leave them alone."

"If I understand what you said about the crazy lady's thought patterns, the big flashy stuff is suppose to be a distraction while she does something more quiet somewhere else. In other words if it looks like all the action's in Ever After then that makes it the safest place to be." Though Sparrow's thought patterns might seem cowardly a the moment, he also had to think about the majority of his classmates who being neither hero, villain or a magic user didn't have the ability to defend themselves if the crazy queen decided to throw something worst at them then a bunch of tamed dragons. "Hey Faybelle!" Faybelle looked to be in the middle of prying Blue Beard's sword out of the statue that was his corpse, Rosabella was helping to break down the rest of the statue while Ramona worked on carrying the pieces into Mrs. Yaga's shack.

"What is it?" Faybelle asked sitting on the end of the blade raised in mid swing.

"Do you know if sleeping beauty's curse comes with any unpleasantness, Monsters, curses, death raining down from the sky anything we have to look out for?" Sparrow shouted with both of his hands cupped over his mouth.

"I wasn't the one who cast the curse! Assuming that the crazy woman hasn't done anything to it since my mother cursed the bloody psychopath then it should just be your standard Sleeping Beauty curse." Faybelle snapped, by the sounds of things this was a question that had been asked a lot.

"Could she have done anything with the curse?" Sparrow asked sounding hopeful.

"There's a thousand different things she could have shoved into that arrow that she stabbed the crazy old hag with." Faybelle snapped, again implying that this had been a question she had answered numerous times that day. "Newsflash geniuses! The vines are covering the entire kingdom, it's no safer or worst there then it is anywhere else in the bloody nightmare pit!"

"Well... It's a better idea then nothing." Sparrow commented shrugging his shoulders. "We should run it by Mr. Grim first, but unless he has a bomb shelter tucked away somewhere I don't have much of a better idea." A fire alarm sounded from the school, and the students began filing out and lining up on the front lawn, including all of the teaching staff.

"Is this everyone?" Giles asked looking at the students and teachers. "Let me check." Mira looked through her phone. "I can't find Apple anywhere, but according to my phone she was pulled through the mirror in your brother's office earlier. But this is everyone who showed up, the others sent advance warning that their arrival would be delayed." With that, Mira held up a lit lighter, and a picture. "Just give the word Headmaster."

"Are you ready?" Giles asked looking at Mrs. Shards.

"Get. It. Over. With." The impatient mirror snapped.

On that note, Mira held the picture to the flame and it burst into flames. Suddenly, the ground shook as the entire school began collapsing in on itself into a huge dusty mess, at the same time Mrs. Shards was forced into a two dimensional form of a full length mirror.

"What has been going on with our school?" Giles asked a little surprised with the amount of damage the magically being held together school seemed to have been building up.

"I blame the walking foundation over there." Mira stated noting the last of Blue Beard's body that had yet to be carried away. Ironic, the hell Blue Beard had unleashed and the damage he had caused had become the foundation, and when the truth had come out that foundation had started to break down.

"True. True. Mrs. Yaga, we'll be loading the students into your shack, I believe it is necessary to remain mobile, less that mad woman pins us down again." Giles stated looking at the student body.

"As you might've guessed, we will no longer be staying here, classes until further notice will be suspended. Go gather your things." With that the group of students dispersed and filed to the dorms, but Sparrow chose to pipe up.

"Oi Mr. Grim." Sparrow piped up waving his hand around. "If we don't have any plans I think I know where we should go."

* * *

Raven had made some pie for the both of them while Apple explained to her what was going on, Raven sat off to the side of her rubbing her finger tips into her temples as she processed the information.

"So Prince Charming, A.K.A Blue Beard, was a serial Killer, Rapist and a Necrophiliac?" Raven double checked letting out a deep sigh.

"Aha."

"The Good King murdered Snow White's Mother, who was already married to Grimhilde A.K.A The Evil Queen."

"Yep."

"And Grimhilde went on a genocidal rampage trying to save her from Blue Beard A.K.A. Prince Charming A.K.A. some giant undead monster that my mother turned loose on the school? But then Grimhilde A.K.A The other super powerful undead monster my mother made showed up and signed the book and sucked both of them inside of it."

"Thus you are now all caught up." Apple stated before a unpleasant look crossed her features. "Speaking of a need to fill people in."

Morgan walked in and sat down next to the pair, taking a moment to assess the two of them before she started speaking.

"Feeling better yet?" Morgan asked sounding rather impatient.

"Do you mean am I over the trauma of watching my quote on quote fiance but really my distant ancestor plow the corpse of one of my other distant ancestors? No. So unfortunately for you you shant be magically ripping the information you want out of my head and then dumping me in a ditch somewhere." Apple seemed rather smug right now, seemed to be anyway, in reality Raven had learned that there was a huge divide between what someone looked like and what they were thinking. Like for instance the only reason why Apple could keep someone like her mother out her head was because there would have to be something positively horrible on her mind right now, which based on what Apple already told her Raven had a fairly good idea on what that was. "Gotta say I'm kind of upset about having all of this messed up stuff in my head but if it let's me keep you from hurting Raven anymore then what you already have then I'm welcome to it." Morgan started to snicker, causing Raven to roll her eyes and Apple to look between the two of them concerned. "What is it? What's so funny?"

"Mom isn't going to hurt me Apple." Raven stated taking a deep sigh.

"What how can you be so sure?" Apple asked looking confused.

"Oh you sweet little girl. For eight years Raven didn't even know where I was nor what I was doing, I made every effort to keep her away from the front lines and stuffed the space in between with as much unpleasantness as possible while I hunted people who made sport out of the cursed tumors I accidentally left in her body when she was born." It took Apple a moment to process what Morgan had just said.

"You're doing this for Raven...? All of it?" Apple asked looking shocked.

"The argument somewhat loses steam when you consider that the main reason why these magic hoarding thugs are targeting me, my obscuris, has already been removed." Raven stated leveling a glare at her mother.

"It makes up for it when you consider that we're talking about the same individuals who tried to use one of those obscuri to power a giant flying chunk of metal that nearly burned a death curse into my mother and your grandmother." Morgan countered glaring at her daughter.

"Touche." Raven stated pointing her finger at her mother.

"The one that used the food knack from Ginger's family right?" Apple asked prompting a look of legitimate surprise by Morgan.

"Huh. I suppose that nature does abhor a vacuum." Morgan commented before she went tot he nearest cabinet while Apple seemed confused for a moment. "Your head is empty. Well, mostly empty." Morgan clarified as she took a bottle of maroon liquid out of the cabinet. "Soda with your food?" Apple looked shocked for a moment before Raven stopped her from saying something she may regret.

"Yes mother." Raven stated in a tired tone of voice. Wordlessly Morgan dropped one bottle in front of Raven and another in front of Apple, Apple's face was locked in shocked surprise as she glared at Raven accusingly. "For someone who was discriminated against as a child for being the daughter of a famous person she has a bad habit of seeing people's parents when she looks at them." Raven stated seemingly redirecting her glare towards her mother.

"I have spent a month inside of that mirror, I have watched her every action, read her every text, tracked her every action, not only have I formed my own opinion of her, but that opinion is very much in the negative." Morgan stated as she folded her hands together and rested her chin on them. "You are not among the worst people that I hate but your kind are high up there. People like you do not seek information, you accept the first version you are told, once I recall that you bet your life on it." Morgan said that she had been reading Apple's texts then she got the angry stream Raven sent her about a undead monster and from Apple's mother about how she tried to defend herself using a cross she cobbled together in the course of a morning. "I wasn't born a monster, I was told I was a monster, and everyone around me was told I was a monster. And I tried to prove I was the bigger person so I ignored them, and no one did anything to stop them, because I was the monster and I could handle it, I deserved it. So eventually I did something to stop it, and for the gall of trying to defend myself, for trying to escape my 'punishment' I was smacked down. And the abuse piled on like that until the proverbial Camel's back finally broke, but you know what happened then." A guilty look crossed Apple's face, having been verbally smacked down. "I became a monster, I am the first Evil Queen in two hundred years to cast a actual curse on another living person, I have a body count that will make genocidal lunatics green with envy, I know every curse, every form of undead, every species of demon, every way to make another living being suffer in existence and I have ludicrous amounts of practice to back it up. I am a monster now, and I have people exactly like you to blame for that."

"Huu." Apple let out a deep sigh as she thought about it, but then continued. "Do you know about Hermione?"

"I'm familiar with her schemes." Morgan stated her tone of voice a rather tired one. "I'm familiar with her role in how my life turned out. Still, in spite of what she believes I did not kill her little pet, not entirely, perhaps she would like to be introduced to the man who tried to turn me into a skewer, the both of us have a mutual dislike for that man a small part of me would like the to imagine the hell that our combined talents could unleash upon him." The sound of cracking sounded from Morgan's hand, and when Apple looked down Apple saw that a swirl had formed on the table around that hand. "But then again, it took all of my will power just to put that arrow into her hand instead of her head. If I didn't need her alive so badly right now I probably would have."

"'Need her?'" Apple asked looking confused.

"Do you know what True love is?" Raven asked prompting a confused and concerned Apple to turn around to face her. "I wasn't asking if you've experienced it I was asking for the definition." Raven stated before she continued. "When two people unite their power in perfect harmony, they create a power that can break the disharmony that is a curse." Apple nodded her head to indicate that she understood what Raven was telling her. "Conversely, there is something else, when two people hate each other enough, they create a curse strong enough that nothing can stop it, a dense mass of hatred born out of nothing less than the desire for mutually assured destruction, that is the other part of the curse."

"The attack on Sleeping Beauty's castle, the one you launched when you got out of highschool!" Apple concluded realization donning on her.

"In which I scoop up the role as villain in my old teacher and friend's story Titania the Evil Fairy thus committing yet another unforgivable act as the Evil Queen." Morgan droned on in a tired voice. "I didn't want her story, I wanted Herminone's head! Now are you going to tell me what I want to know or am I going to take your head as a consolation prize!"

* * *

 **Review Section** :

Zwei Eis: She's seen worst, and it's nice to see someone as ridiculously powerful as she is get legitimately outsmarted.

DJ: Thank you for saying so. Well I like to think she was rather well off before. When Morgan's business brings her back to Riordan then yes. You assume that he doesn't already know.

Raven: I can't reply to nothing.

Wade: True, back bone doesn't do you a lot of good against a volcano or a hurricane.

Charlie: Agreed and Agreed.


	64. Chapter 64

**Author's Note** : My apologies for the late update my loyal readers, my parents you see made the "brilliant" mistake of switching us over to the cheapest internet, TV and Phone provider that they could which for the past week hasn't even meant we had internet. So Read, Review, Favorite, Enjoy and know that this shouldn't affect my posts for Saturday or this Sunday.

* * *

Chapter 64: This is the Coral Witch, Evil Queen

Morgan had brought the two of them onto a ship, it was similar to the Prydwyn in that it was made out of wood, magically expanded on the inside, and had bits of a leviathan tacked onto the side of it to enhance it's swimming ability. Apple had never heard of anyone taking their ship this far out to sea before, or more accurately of anyone taking it out this far and living to tell the tale about it, Apple could see bits of ships sticking out of the surface of the water, ships that had been stacked on top of ships on top of ships. The people of the undersea kingdom were not fond of Ever After, not at all.

"We're here." Morgan for this occasion was wearing a one piece bathing suit, and so was Raven. Apple had eventually caught onto the situation and cursed not thinking to properly pack her things before she came here, what they were doing here escaped her though. "Ursula should be down there, I'm going to go ahead, but we'll need you down there too soon."

Saying that, Morgan swan dived into the water, even from the surface Apple could see something weird happening to Morgan's body. Her legs fused together, and something sharp looking grew out of her back and arms, a few moments later a creature Apple can only describe as a were shark jumped out of the water, waved her tail a few times, before diving back into the water.

"Raven. Your mom just turned into a fish." Apple felt a strange compulsion to point out.

"Yeah. She's always been good at shape shifting." Raven stated giving Apple a pat on her back. "Never been my strong suit though, wish me luck." Dropping that line Apple looked on in fear as Raven mutated her features, developing webbed feet and hands as well as gills on her sides where she left the swim suit open. "Well how do I look?" Raven asked prompting Apple to just stare in surprise. "What do I have something stuck in my teeth."

"No it's not that it's just that... after what your mom just turned into this seems kinda... underwhelming." Apple commented looking Raven up and down.

The truth was that this was the first time that Apple had seen Raven in any kind of swim wear, and that in turn brought to mind certain dreams that she was trying really hard not to think about.

"Can't be helped, I'm not so bold as to alter my entire body just to go for a swim." Raven stated shrugging her shoulders.

"What about that time you got turned into a bird?" Apple asked looking confused.

"Well, that was just me being kinda selfish. I wasn't really concerned about making any permanent changes to how my magic or body works because I would just switch back with whoever I switched with. But turning myself into a fish person means that eventually I have to turn myself back, so I made only the bare minimum number of changes that I could get away with so that when I did that, I would only have to make a bare minimum number of changes." Apple nodded her head, Raven's logic made sense in it's own way. "See yah."

Raven jumped into the water before Apple could get any more information out of her, leaving her alone on a ship in the middle of a grave yard of ships.

"Great. What do I do now?"

Apple took a minuet to think about her options, essentially as she understood it, Raven was in the process of being groomed for Riordan's throne by her mother. A process that unlike the training Apple was put through involved less beauty care products and a lot more complex rituals and binding of the soul to foreign inter dimensional entities. When asked about matters which involved actual running of the countries Raven explained that the actual running of the country was left in the hands of a prime minister elected by the general populace, who unlike in the case of Ever After are actually mentally qualified enough to run their own country as Apple realized. Change would have to take time Apple also realized, she would have to take the throne, so that she could dismantle the country that was depended wholly on it's monarchy called Ever After and build a new one from the remains that would be one that was run fairly with it's people first.

"Hmm. Asking the neighbors for help will speed it up, but I'll just be trading one Monarchy for another one." At that point in time Nevermore walked out from the cabin and looked out at the water where Raven had left. "Good to see you girl, at least I won't be here all by myself." As if to spite Apple, Nevermore jumped into the water and dived deep below the surface, splashing Apple who then spat out water in the style of a spout. "Of course you can swim." Apple deduced spitefully as she made a effort to wring the water out of her hair.

* * *

Ever After's main governing castle, Arwinter, was about three days travel on chicken shack. Hunter didn't really know how that compared to most other modes of land based transportation, he was from Riordan after all, but he was fairly confident it was fast when compared to most forms of non mirror based travel. What he saw on his way here was disheartening to say the least, they had not met a single living soul in any of the towns they past through on their way here, everyone of them were knocked out cold with the dark veins of toxic alchemical by-product in their veins. Many had wanted to stop and help them, though as the resident curse expert duly pointed out most of this madness can be taken care of in one fell swoop when they broke the curse on Hermione. Most but not all of them.

"So we know what we're going to do with Hermione." Faybelle was brushing burrs out of her pet Pomeranian's fur coat, at some point someone had hung a sign on the yappy little thing's cage which read 'secret weapon.' "But what about everyone else?"

"Mira dragged Sparrow and Duchess off to the chem-myth-ry lab a while ago saying that she had a plan to take care of that." Ramona stated looking quite amused when Faybelle dropped the scissors she was holding from pure shock.

"Sparrow in the chem-myth-ry lab!?" Faybelle's shocked declaration had scared her pet off.

* * *

"Why am I here?" Sparrow asked doing his best to stay as far away from Mira as possible while she mixed together a potion.

"I'm mixing together a neutralizing agent that will neuter the toxins flowing through those vines and into the bodies of the citizens of this country." Mira, wearing goggles and examining a beaker full of ominous green liquid that she was stirring, replied curtly.

"Lemme rephrase that. Why are you risking that by bringing me here? Everything I touch explodes!" Sparrow bemoaned recalling the many, many failures that he had incurred in Chem-Myth-Ry which resulted in him being nearly banned from the lab on more then one occasion.

"That is part of the idea. It will help with dispersal of the antidote rather nicely." Mira stated as she started looking at another beakers contents.

"Won't that kinda mess up the important parts?" Sparrow asked looking confused at Mira.

"You misunderstand, I intend to make use of your knack which is to make things explode." Mira explained pulling the goggles off of her face. Even if you aren't a magic caster, you still have magic in you, and it mixes with your unique identity to produce a effect, like the magic symbols Mira plastered all over the girl's dormitory to produce a magic barrier, as Sparrow recalled the lecture to him. "Brewing Alcohol is designed to absorb the unique magical properties in the ingredients for the potions, it likely absorbed some of your magical power because you were concentrating too hard." Mira explained shrugging her shoulders.

"Then why isn't it that anything I make doesn't work right, if you say is true then I should just make potions that do what they're suppose to do and then explode?" Sparrow asked shrugging his shoulders.

"Unfortunately, there's a simple explanation for that as well: You suck at Chem-Myth-Ry." Mira stated rather bluntly.

"Fantastic. Is there something else I can do other than being your potion mold?" Sparrow asked glaring at Mira.

"Actually yes." Mira produced a scroll and allowed it to unfold to reveal a diagram of a manticore. "This is a Manticore, otherwise known as a poison eating dragon, it's saliva has unique properties that allows to harvest toxins and expel them through glands located underneath it's claws."

"So if I understand it, I'm suppose to wrestle a dragon to the ground, get it to drool in a vial with out it trying to eat me?" Sparrow asked the look on his face un-amused.

"Oh it will definitely try to eat you. I recommend you don't let it. If it makes you feel better there were a few among the quote one quote losers that we captured at the school." Mira stated making air quotes with her fingers.

"Well... maybe." As Sparrow said that, he grabbed barrel full of brewing alcohol on his way out of the lab.

"I'm confident that's for the Manticore." Saying that, Mira resumed work. "Maybe I should have asked Ashlyn instead?"

* * *

Raven always knew that her mother had some strange friends, but this definitely took the case. Arriving in the little abandoned sea faring vessel trapped tangled in a mass of sea weed Raven was greeted to the sight of what she at first thought to be some giant black octopus. Then she saw the head sticking out of it, try as she might Raven couldn't divine a exact term for her species, the best she could determine was she was some kind of Centaur, only substitute the horse lower body with that of a octopus, so a Cephalo-taur. Who it was Raven had a better ideal, recalling the tale of the little mermaid and where they were and concluding that this was the person commonly known as the sea witch, or the Ursula her mother was talking.

"Morgan Darling!" The large woman wrapped her arms, tentacles included, around the sharkish form of Raven's mother. "Good to see you again old friend." Morgan stated as Ursula released her grip on her. "So what're yah here for now? Want another Jormangandr egg?" Ursula asked shrugging her shoulders.

"I've been in talks with your fellow fish people about bringing down our collective wrath upon the people in my government that are annoying us. They directed me to you, as your people's ambassador to mine." Morgan stated gesturing to the octopus woman.

"And what are you offering us in return? My people aren't getting involved in your little terrorist attacks for nothing in return." Ursula asked as she went to a complex looking machine, clearly making potions underwater was more complicated then making them on the surface. "Currently there are a large series of craters dividing our lands from those of Ever After, not too far away from that is a a canyon, from that a tunnel, from that a lake, the list goes on like that for a while all the way to the ocean that is your countries border." Now that did interest the sea witch. "A series of explosions, and they're all yours."

"You would sell out your people just to kill a few that you don't like?" Ursula asked looking incredulous.

"I'm going to drown those rats out of hiding, and I don't want you people getting mad at me when I drain your ocean to do it." Morgan snapped her eyes shining a tell tale red.

"True, that does sound like a subject of legitimate concern to us. I trust you have a plan to rectify our loss of what amounts to breathable air for us?" Clearly the subject of her people spontaneously suffocating to death was a bit of a high priority topic for Ursula.

"Ice." Morgan replied simply.

"You want to freeze the water thereby leaving less of it for us?" Ursula asked cocking a brow suspiciously.

"The northern most part of the realm is full of ice, we melt it and the water line goes up and neuters the drop created by my creative redecorating of my homeland." Morgan explained prompting a horrified look on Raven's features.

"And as for the creatures which live there?" Ursula asked cocking a brow suspiciously.

"They'll only be displaced if Jormangandr doesn't move to the surface." That horrified Ursula.

"Jormangandr, as in the giant snake that encompasses the globe, the one that reportedly creates tidal waves every time she flips over in her sleep Jormangandr?" Ursula stated grabbing Morgan by her hair which had turned into something similar to seaweed.

"That be the one." Morgan stated getting Ursula's hands off of her.

"The Land Dwellers are right, you are crazy."

* * *

There was a small slot in the door through which they would give them food, it didn't always smell too good, but when you consider that Manticores were known as 'poison eaters' it wasn't like they had high standards to begin with. Still the little cat door opened with someone using a hook to push in a barrel full of foul smelling liquid, it would appear that for some reason they were giving him some honest to goodness poison. Thus the Manticore decided to begin slurping down the liquid, only to his immense frustration that same hook which had pushed the delectable liquid inside of it's cell grabbed it and pulled it back to the little door.

* * *

Sparrow noticed that his hook suddenly had a lot of weight attached to it as he tried to yank it back out of the room, normally he wouldn't try ingredient harvesting using a method that would water it down, his chem skills were horrible on their own without him actually trying to use second rate ingredients, that said given what Mira said about this stuff it should work just as well if he can just get the thing to stick his tongue in, given what alcohol is made of and what this thing likes to eat that shouldn't be too hard. Evidently he liked it a little too much because he wasn't given the stuff up.

"Just, one, more, pull!"

Sparrow was suddenly knocked against the wall as the weight spontaneously gave way. When he looked up he saw the form of the lion like dragon he had been fighting with. More important than that though, he saw that the dragon was missing a eye, and there was only one reason why Sparrow could think of for that.

"Hi there. Remember me?" Sparrow asked noting that the only weapon he came there with, the hook on a ten foot pole, was locked in grinning jaws.

* * *

 **Review Section** :

Guest: Thank you For saying so. Well Hermione and Morgan's relationship started out as one sided hate but mostly through Hermione's boundless determination it became quite mutual. One of Morgan's many assassin's nearly succeeded in killing her when she was a child and as such she needed a new kidney, do to her rare blood type the only donor organ they had available was suppose to be reserved for a individual that Hermione had considered the love of her life at the time, and not knowing the identity of who was really responsible she instead locked in on Morgan as the one responsible. Hermione in turn set to work spreading every rumor and lie she could think of to cause Morgan pain and thus they arrive at this point.

rmarcano123: Thank you for your many, many reviews I trust that you know that if I had the ability I would respond to each one individually. I do not.

Zwei Eis: Here you go, and again apologies for the late reply.

Wade: Oh I'm sure they could think of something.

Charlie: Overall the loss of one person shouldn't do much. If anything it'll probably prod the adults into action faster.


	65. Chapter 65

**Author's Note** : Sorry for the late update, I swore I thought I published this last week. Read, Review, Favorite and Enjoy!

* * *

Chapter 65: A New Alliance

Apple, left by herself with little else to do, began looking through Raven's chem-myth-ry book for information on mass detoxification.

"Alright, so this potion can neutralize Alchemical by products." Apple noted as she made some notes. "Now how to mass deploy it?" If Apple had a Thunder Bird, then she could have it fly into the clouds and use it's atmokinesis to simply rain the potion down on Ever After below. "Do I have a Thunder Bird I can use though?" If possible, Apple would not like to make use of Duchess, that girl had a talent for irking her in all the wrong ways. "I need to find the natural breeding grounds of the Thunder Birds and earn their cooperation!" Apple went to get another book about the various monsters of the world and where to find them. Ignoring the need to remove the toxicity from her homeland Apple recognized that the ability to manipulate the weather would be a great boon for when they start harvesting their own crops. "But what to do about restoring the nutrients of the soil?"

"Mash the bits of food that you don't eat together, mix them with your excrement, and spread them evenly over the lands you intend to use to grow the food."

"That's a good start, but is there a way of accelerating plant growth?" Apple suddenly sat up straight upon realizing that she was actually talking to someone and looked around to see Raven who was ringing her hair out over the water.

"Well, you could use druid type magic to prod the plants to grow faster, of course if you push that too far then you risk dramatically reducing the nutritional quality of the plants."

"When did you get back?" Apple asked looking surprised.

"Just now." Raven drew attention to her still soaking wet body. Nevermore climbed aboard the ship and shook the water off of herself prompting Apple to try to protect herself from the resulting spray.

"Nevermore!" Apple growled as she wiped the water off of her face. "Where are we off to now?"

"North, first we have a bit of a stop to make though." As Raven explained the ship started moving, Apple could see a trail of water going from the side of the ship to presumably where the captain's station was located, the implication being that Morgan had climbed out of the water and was now directing the ship.

"I repeat Where are we going?" Apple asked as she braced herself against the side of the ship.

"Basically, we're going to a temple co owned by Riordan and the sea kingdom." Raven explained as the ship's lizard like bits steered the ship off in another direction. "It's similar in principle to the one we were living in a little while ago."

"You mean the one that was designed to summon a genie right?" Apple asked cocking a interested brow.

"Yes but different from each other and different from the two you saw me summon earlier. The first one was a Djinn, a wind Genie, the second was a Ifrit a fire Genie, the one we're suppose to summon back at that temple is a Dao a Earth Genie, and this one will be a Maride a water genie." Raven explained gesturing over the water.

"And this is part of the process of... turning you into a stabilizer for your home land?" Apple asked with a confused look on her face. "Basically, yes."

"Good." Apple stated nodding in self satisfaction. " _It'd be bad if I got the facts wrong in my message._ "

* * *

The accurate term was albatross, a water fowl with long distance flight capabilities. While Duchess understood what it was what she didn't understand was why it was here. Examining the bird Duchess discovered a note attached to it's leg and unfolded it to read it.

"Oi you in here?" The White Queen came into the room carrying a laundry bag for Duchess. "The Fairy girl said this is for you."

Some time ago, Duchess consulted Farrah about clothing that would actually change with her, similar to what Ramona and Rosabella wore. To her disappointment, since both Ramona and Rosabella both were individuals that turned into creatures with a lot of hair, then they both could have that harvested and turned into clothing, and since that clothing was technically part of their bodies it would change with them. Duchess's problem was that originally she could only turn into a relatively small creatures, she could be plucked bare and barely have enough to attempt to weave into a set of undergarments. Now with the ability to turn into such large creatures as she does and access to Farrah Goodfairy and her clothing knack Duchess could easily acquire a whole wardrobe of such clothing, first of which it would appear just arrived.

"Do you know who this came from?" Duchess asked as she traded the letter with the White Queen for her new outfit.

"Where you'd get this?" The White Queen asked as she red the contents of the note.

"That Albatross over there." Duchess stated as the bird in question flew away.

"Where did it come from." The White Queen asked cocking a brow suspiciously.

"This time of year? It should be coming from the south." Duchess stated prompting the White Queen to glare suspiciously.

"How far away?" The White Queen asked with blatant suspicion now.

"You tell me, Albatross spend most of their lives in the air, they're even known for sleeping while they fly." Duchess explained taking her blouse off.

"Is it normal for them to be used as messengers?" The Queen of Looking Glass Land asked now with a idea of who was responsible for this message.

"They're not exactly what you call smart, the only way you could really train them to do what you want would be..." Then Duchess went wide eyed as she came to the same conclusion as the White Queen. "If they had a animal Knack. Apple sent this didn't she?"

* * *

The White Queen took the message to Giles who was inside of Mrs. Yaga's study, coordinating the investigation into the capital through the use of several mirror phones.

"'Genie summoning temples, Prydwyn ripoff off the coast of Riordan.'" Giles read from the note. "You sure this is Apple's?"

"She can make the stupid birds do whatever she tells them to and who else would take the time to write such a important message in pure calligraphy?" The White Queen asked in spite of already knowing the answer.

"So she's trying to figure out where she is, or more accurately trying to get us to figure out where she is." Giles stated scratching his chin.

"Assuming that this message was meant for us, as far as Apple knows we should still be at the school." The White Queen pointed out shrugging her shoulders.

"If not us who should not be in a position to receive this message and not the royal army who she knows is asleep right now then to whom was this message meant for?"

* * *

Outside of the Shack, Darling was in the process of scavenging for supplies, food was out of the question, but swords and other weapons shouldn't be, besides Darling needed new armor for a little venture she was planning. Something lighter and easier to move in.

"Where's a goblin when you need one?" Darling complained as she looked at the quality of the swords around her.

Even with nine month's of training under Wonderland's royal guard under her belt, Darling was still in her growth period for sword skills. She had developed a bad habit over the past months of constantly breaking the weapons she worked with, aside from the near indestructible goblin forged blade Morgan gave her that is. The same blade which currently remained a useless pile of rubber on the floor of a Wonderlandian armory thanks to the efforts of Lizzie's black smiths.

"Maybe we can get something from the dwarfs?"

Darling had heard that Dwarfs were expect craftsmen, though it was also usually in the same paragraph that she heard that they were magic proof. Given the accuracy of one fact it called into question the other as well. It was while thinking about this that Darling heard the sound of rummaging coming from the nearby house and went inside to investigate. The family looked like they were sitting down to a meal when the curse hit, they were all seated around a dining table even as they were wrapped in the vines. But their cutlery was gone, Darling looked through the house and it didn't take her long to find a sack full of valuables, and the behind of a short person that was sticking out of a closet. As luck would have it, Darling was still holding one of the swords she took from the Black Smith's during her little shopping trip and poked the posterior of the Dwarf with it's tip.

"Given the nature of what I was doing I won't scold you as a looter. That said I have questions and I suspect you have answers." Darling stated in a threatening tone.

Unfortunately, luck does not favor the hypocritical.

The wall Darling was standing in front of suddenly came down as two figures came through. The Looting dwarf used the distraction and the hole it had created to leap out of the room and away from Darling's sword.

"Darling!" Darling got up to see Sparrow riding a one eyed Manticore bare back. "HELP!" Sparrow got on his back, used his feet to hold up the fore legs of the Manticore and with his arms the back legs, while he grabbed the bladed tail with his teeth.

"Sparrow, if you're trying to ride that dragon you're doing it wrong." Darling stated as she picked up a large metal cup with a fare amount of heft to it from the sack. Darling attempted to use the cup as a bludgeon and knock the Manticore out, but instead the poisonous beast clamped powerful jaws down on the cup rendering it unrecognizable. "Eh. I can work with that." Darling grabbed a nearby coat rack with her free hand and prepared to bludgeon the beast a second time. The Manticore saw the weapon coming and let go of it's make shift tug o war in favor of rolling out of the way, as a unexpected bonus it shook Sparrow off of him thus allowing the beast to circle it's two opponents. "Explain." Darling demanded in terse terms.

"It's spit is the cure for the poison." Sparrow stated as he breathed exhaustively.

"Really?" Darling charged the beast with the coat rack as if intending to spear it.

The Manticore used it's bladed tail to smash the Coat Rack as Darling intended, grabbing the tail as it was about to move away, at the same time a paper weight was chucked at the head of the beast with perfect accuracy rendering it unconscious in the process.

"Nice shot." Darling complimented as Sparrow came over and picked the one eyed beast up by his head and the two of them carried him out of the house. "What are we doing with this?" Darling asked noting the trail Sparrow and his little friend left behind rampaging through the capital.

"We're taking him to Mira. Are you the one responsible for that?" Sparrow asked gesturing to the loot sack inside the house.

"No, I stumbled across a dwarfen looter before you two stumbled across us." Darling stated as she adjust her portion of the weight.

"Those hairy little pests are really starting to annoy me." Sparrow stated as they re-entered the shack and made their way to the makeshift chem lab.

"When I asked you to retrieve it's saliva I didn't expect you to bring me back the whole Manticore." Mira stated as she used a depressing stick to squirt Manticore saliva into a beaker. "Alright, you two can take it down to the dungeons now."

"Actually Sparrow is going to do that, something interesting has popped up that I think you ought to know." Darling stated, successfully glaring Sparrow into submission who grumbled as he dragged his sparring partner back to his rest area.

"And what would that be?" Mira asked cocking a brow suspiciously.

"I found a looter in one of the houses I was inside, a Dwarf." Darling asked using her brow to indicate for Mira to continue.

"I never liked them." Mira stated before she started tending to her work station.

"But why aren't they effected?" Darling asked suspecting that Mira had missed the point.

"The most likely explanation, he came here from somewhere else like us, did you see anymore of them running around?" Mira asked cocking a brow suspiciously at Darling.

"It isn't just that, but why was he raiding the domestic homes, unless all the more expensive places have been stripped bare already." Darling stated her hand on her chin.

"It has been nine months already Darling." Mira stated as she went to work on the antidote.

"Hmm. Just makes me wonder if the dwarfs are immune to these things and if they are what should we do about them." Any thing resembling a army that they could put together to go after Morgan would probably just be knocked down by the sleeping curse again. If the dwarfs were immune then that meant that the solution to their problem was the tried and true method: send dwarfs after the Evil Queen.

"Because that'll work out so well." Mira replied sarcastically.

"Well it's better then nothing. Hold off on distributing that stuff while I go check." Darling noted that the dwarfs and Ever After must not have been on good terms.

The entrance to their city was some rusty old well, and if there was another entrance she couldn't find it. Descending down that well Darling found that the curse indeed made it all the way to the underground, if the presence of rose vines were any indication. At the same time she also found mine carts that were busy pushing supplies along at an accelerated rate throughout the city, a strong indication that things were progressing unencumbered. Darling narrowed her eyes in displeasure and lowered herself to the floor of the cavern, a guard post where soldiers were suppose to be located presumably to protect this entrance was abandoned for months. Investigating a smoke stack that led to the surface Darling discovered a Alchemy lab where various dwarfs could be seen experimenting with the plants that had invaded their domain. A chalk board had been set up listing off the properties of the Alchemical by products they had been producing for years and which could now be found in concentrated measures within those same plants which pervaded every inch of Ever After. By the looks of things they were trying to figure out what they should do with the various plants, based on the diagrams she could see the conclusion they reached or the conclusion they were going for was explosive. More disturbing then that though was the large courtyard type area Darling saw where halberd and tower shield wielding dwarfs were busy practicing. Even a dozen for the purpose of training the city guard Darling could understand, but the vast open space down there was crowded with the little armored beards, just barely enough space between them to swing around their halberds. This was the training of a army.

"Beards." Darling muttered darkly as she went back to the well.

* * *

On the surface Mira and the school were gathered together as they watched the sky. Duchess was flying around in the air as she prepared a torrential downpour.

"Well?" Mira asked cocking a brow suspiciously at Darling.

"Yeah they're down there, getting ready for a full scale invasion no less." Darling stated a look of smoldering rage on her features.

"Makes sense." Mira stated with a shrug.

"'Makes sense?'" Darling repeated her voice a mass of barely contained rage.

"Food can't be grown here, where it can be grown aren't willing to negotiate with them, looting is the only logical conclusion." Mira explained calmly.

"Well it's not like they've got anyone else to blame but themselves." Darling stated shaking her head in disapproval.

"Given the evidence we uncovered that indicates that the plot to kill the Queen Family came from within our own ranks I would argue against that." Mira countered cocking a suspicious brow at Darling.

"... Fair enough. But we both know those guys are basically marching to their death's right?" Darling conceded the rage bleeding out of her like it had taken a sucking chest wound.

"Absolutely, which is the reason why after we get this done we are going down there provide our support." Mira stated opening up a umbrella as it thundered lightly in the distance.

"Is that wise?" Darling asked her face plastered with shock.

"We need a army, they have a army. They need technical support, we have technical support. Rather than wise it seems obvious." Mira stated as it started to rain.

"That mad woman is gonna send us all to hell for this." Darling lamented holding her face in her hand. "Everyone! Lets get out of the rain!"

Even though Darling shouted that, upon getting inside they found several people who would not be getting wet any time soon, the various nobility of Ever After, but attending to them was a group of seven dwarfs.

"Great more of these guys." Darling stated pulling out a sword.

"Hang on! I recognize this one." Sparrow stated looking at one dwarf woman dressed as a butler. "Blondie do you have the school's newspaper clippings on your mirror pad?"

"Obviously." Blondie handed Sparrow her Mirror pad and he looked through and examined the news paper clippings from near when the school year started. "Look here." The paper dated the day that Snow White Visited clearly depicted the seven dwarfs that had joined Snow White on her visit to Ever After. "These dwarfs work for Snow White."

"Indeed, I am Joyful." The female dwarf turned around and gestured to her compatriots. "Angry, Smarty, Sickly, Snoozer, Shy and of course Numbskull."

"Right. We created a antidote for the toxins in the plants that are now flowing into the citizens of the capital and dispersed it into the clouds. We need to get these people some water." Mira explained gesturing outside.

The numerous dwarfs didn't waste any time collecting buckets of the stuff and sipping it into the individuals they had been caring for the better part of a year. Improvements in health could been immediately, Snow White who had gone deathly pale and who's veins had turned black with the goo in her veins regained much of her complexion in virtually no time at all.

"Faybelle, our 'secret weapon.'" Mira stated with a fair amount of reluctance.

Faybelle placed her pet carrier on top of the table and opened it to reveal her Pomeranian whom under Faybelle's instructions went over to Hermione and started to lick her face.

"Are we sure this is gonna work?" Briar looked doubtful, but the ground beneath them shifted as the plants all suddenly died off and rotted away, at the same time the people at the table started to wake up, included among them Hermione.

"Someone get this beast away from me before I turn it into a scarf!" Hermione shrieked glaring hatefully at her would be Prince Charming who whimpered in fear as Faybelle pulled him away.

"Well... it worked." As Mira said that the dwarf known as Angry picked up a candle stick and whacked Hermione in the back of her head knocking her out cold.

"Been waiting to do that for months!" Angry stated beaming wide in direct contrast with his name.

"Right... Your majesty are you alright?" Mira asked turning her attention to Snow White.

"I'll be okay. What happened?" Snow White asked looking around confused. "To you? Morgan shot Sleeping Nasty over there with a arrow sleeping cursing all of you in the process." Sparrow explained gesturing to the woman in question. "To us? Nine month's in a quantum bungalow."

"I see, anything else I should know about?" Sleeping Beauty asked scratching her head as Smarty helped her to her feet.

The various students looked at each other with mixed looks on their faces. Then Luck, or in this case Daring, Stepped forward cutting through the crowd in the process.

"Ah, ahem. This should clarify things." Daring stated having started a video on his phone and handed it over to Ever After's Queen.

"'Hello Mr. Smarty pants Daring here! Seeing as how you seem to be a little confused by about my ancestry I'd thought I'd go into the book and prove you wrong!'" Daring's voice, much more confident then what it was now, echoed from the phone.

"You recorded it?" Mira asked as Sparrow gathered together the buckets from earlier.

"Seemed like a good idea at the time." Daring replied meekly.

The video proceeded for a little while, the people within the book, Schnee and Grimhilde mostly, had this... odd look of joy on their features as Daring was directed to a mirror within the castle, who then took the liberty of explaining, visually no less, the numerous crimes of Blue Beard and his dwarf associates. When all was said and done, and when Daring stopped screaming in the recording, Snow White and her seven Dwarfs were left mouths agap in shock at what they were seeing. Snow White fainted, and the buckets distributed by Sparrow managed the wave of vomit that ensued, following which Joyful picked up the phone between a finger and a thumb like she was holding something that had been dipped in viscous horrific fluid.

"I need to burn this."

* * *

 **Author's Note** :

rmarcano321: If anyone could build one.

Zwei Eis: That was pretty much the same reaction I had while writing it, it amused me so I put it in.

Guest: Think of it as the role of the pharoh's, a representative of the gods that is passed down from generation to generation to maintain the well being of the land, mostly because they can't be bothered to do so themselves. Thank you for saying so. A member of the royal family can become Prime Minister, provided they aren't selected for the role of queen, provided that they are willing and able to run, and provided that they are formally elected. I hope to.

Wade: That she can't.

Charlie: Thank you for saying so. Thank you, but It should.


	66. Chapter 66

**Author's Note** : Not much to say right now, as unfortunate as it might be for some of you I feel I must inform you all that I intend to end the story soon, Not sure when exactly only that it is in sight.

* * *

Chapter 66: A Royal Coup

A stone ax was swung through the air and brought down on the branch of a Apple tree, conveniently enough already wrapped in a length of Mistletoe, and joined several others in a basket full of tree branches, vines and apples. The raven haired woman doing the branch picking walked along the road and towards a cabin in the woods, smirking and shaking her head as she walked by a tastefully decorated high end carriage and the stabled eight legged horses, commonly known as Sleipnier, that had pulled it there.

"Hello there~!" The horses rubbed their noses against the woman's blouse as she gave them the treat she had picked in the woods.

Once inside the woman hung her heavy robe and witches hat next to the dress robes meant to be worn over regular clothing and crown.

"Good afternoon!" The woman with a basket full of branches shouted loud enough for anyone inside the little building to hear. Soon a blonde haired woman dressed rather humble looking clothes peaked her head out from the kitchen area.

"Good afternoon Raven!" The blonde rushed up and hugged the Woman named Raven and rubbed her head against her bosom.

"Easy there Apple." Raven stated as she patted her wife on her back.

Raven knew Apple's job wasn't easy, trying to reform a entire kingdom all by herself wasn't anything like easy. Raven had offered to raise her a few undead administrative assistants but Apple had refused, some non sense about people being scared of the idea of being bossed around by a bunch of skeletons with dear antlers. That left the young queen in a bit of a pickle, she had a select few individuals that she trusted from her highschool days as being smart enough to do the jobs she needed doing, which is why they were doing those jobs instead of helping her with the upper management of the Kingdom. Jobs like Duchess's, making sure that the farms were taken care of properly, like Darling whose army was keeping order in a unsafe world, like Briar who ensured that there would be no sty of arrogance and stupidity for the next generation to wallow in, like Blondie who kept the public informed and up to date. Each of these people had their roles to play, and Apple's was to hold it all together. Therefore Raven simply allowed Apple to recover her mental faculties by rubbing her face against hers in a act of healing had no room to complain in the grand scheme of things.

"You wanna sit down?" Raven asked looking at the couch slyly. The couple sat down and turned on the TV.

"How are things on your end?" Apple asked looking up from her perverse rubbing against Raven.

"Mom's doing well, I finished visiting her in Wonderland shortly before coming home." Raven stated breathing a heavy sigh.

"One of these days she's going to have answer for everything she did." Apple stated a sad tone in her voice.

"I know, and when that day comes I'll be there for her." Raven stated sadly as she rested her head on Apple's shoulder. "That's what family is for." Raven noticed a figure in the corner of the mirror she and Apple were sitting in front of, all dark shadow with white points for eyes.

"Out!" Raven snapped as if just realizing something.

The shadow slinked out by way of the door, though now Raven's mood was ruined.

* * *

On Board the ship Raven watched her mother sitting backwards on a chair looking at her and Apple as they slept together.

"I don't go poking around your head do I?" Raven snapped aware of the thorough invasion of privacy that she had just suffered through.

"Stop trying to save me Raven." Morgan stated in a sad tone of voice.

"Why? Because you're a monster? Because you're insane? Because you're broken? Because you're everything that they say you are?" Raven's face was one of hardened steel. "You think I care about any of that? I will not compromise, I will not back down, I will have everything that was taken from me, and I will have everything that I want."

"You sound like me at your age." Morgan sighed looking down. "What about her?" Morgan asked pointing at Apple. "I've seen inside of your head, are you saying that you're gonna take her for yourself whether she wants to go with you or not?"

"I want her to be happy!" Raven snapped glaring at her mother. "I don't care if it's with me or not!" Raven breathed in and then out. "Even if she doesn't want to be with me, I will earn the right to stand by her side. I will support her in every way that can!"

"You really believe that she will let you help her don't you?" Morgan asked that sad, beaten dog look on her face. "It's like a mirror into the past, all the hopes I once held for this world staring me in the face."

"You'll be able to see those hopes again." Raven stated smirking as she looked her mother in the eye. "I will show you that there's more then just the bigotry and ignorance you grew up drowning in in this world!"

"For your sake I hope you're right, because what you're planning on doing right now, it's gonna chew you up and spit you out." Saying that Morgan got up and left the room. "You coming? I'm making breakfast."

"I'm coming." Raven stated as she walked out of the room chasing after her mother, leaving a motionless and wide eyed Apple to quietly contemplate what she's just heard.

* * *

"God Mother I can't deal with any of this sober." Weiss White, not Snow White now or ever again thanks to the contents of Daring's phone, stated as she rubbed the temples of her head. "So you're telling me, that you people sent my daughter into a potentially hostile, unstable mini-realm of a book, while you were under attack by the original Prince Charming and Evil Queen reanimated as undead monsters made out of chunks of the school's foundation and now she's in the hands of the mad woman who brought those same beasts back to life?"

"Pretty much." Mrs. Yaga stated as she intercepted a wine bottle and glass that Joyful had just retrieved from the kitchen. "But before you resort to drinking yourself into a drunken stupor perhaps it would be wise to figure out a plan to get your daughter back?"

"Oh trust me, I got a plan!" Weiss stated snatching the bottle out of Mrs. Yaga's hands. "And I need that." Weiss popped the cork on the bottle and skipped the part where she pored herself a glass and went straight to chugging the contents of the bottle.

"I'm afraid to ask but what for?" Mrs. Yaga noted, truly scared for the first time in a long time, of the shocking ease by which Weiss emptied that bottle.

"The wine itself is a Riordan specialty imbued during the growth process with multiple buffing type spells aimed specifically at augmenting a person's knack." As Joyful explained Weiss thrust the bottle into Joyful's hands before getting up a fiery rage in her eyes.

"Outta my way yoush batty ol skeletune!" Weiss snapped with a clear slur in her voice.

"Also, alcohol destroys her self restraint and causes her to fly off the handle a bit." As Joyful explained this, Weiss suddenly collapsed, having tripped over herself.

"Who did dat!?"

"Also, it turns her into a bit of a klutz. I personally recommend that we wait a bit until we help her up." Joyful explained watching her monarch try and fail to pull herself back on her feet.

"Very wise. So tell me, why is it that you are so intent on going against your people on this?" Mrs. Yaga asked cocking a brow suspiciously at the dwarf.

"Because I am tired of living in fear of the day that we all starve to death because someone cuts us off because we keep pissing everyone we meet off. Our assassins try to kill the queen family, our scientists pollute the lands of our allies, and none of my a dozen times over great grandfather's are doing anything about it." There was a reason why long lived races had a changing of monarchy every twenty or hundred so years, otherwise there would be stagnation, and stagnation breeds disease and death. "We need to change. I don't care if I sit on a throne but if I am to be ruled I want it done by someone who will properly look after my people." Joyful explained sounding rather tired.

"Well said!" Mrs. Yaga stated hands on hips and nodding her head in approval. "Now, would you mind getting that woman downstairs so that she can raise some hell?"

* * *

"In short, we have concluded that the extract from the plants contain potent energetic properties..." The contents of the goblet belonging to the middle dwarf king rippled. "But said properties are highly unstable, harvesting them for use a fuel source seems to be ill advised but as a explosive they should be more then enough." On the subject of which, the keen ears of the dwarfs picked up a faint booming sound coming off from the distance. "However, given the sudden lost of the plants in question any large scale plans we had for this substance has been indefinitely..." The booming was getting louder, the faint shaking of the room heavier, the alchemist who had been given the thankless task of giving his report to his kings now looked not at them but behind him. "Until a new source of..." Loyal to the end, the Dwarf didn't even get the chance to finish his report before the doors came down on him, through the smoke the silhouette of nightmare and teeth as long as great swords made itself known. Seemingly less threatening in comparison, a shaky figure stepped out of the dust cloud approaching the seven dwarf kings.

"I... want all of yoush... out of... out of my housh!" Snow White, drunk as a skunk and carrying a emptied bottle of liquid courage, and glaring hatefully at the dwarf kings it should be noted, stormed in past the wyrm that had made itself comfortable in the middle of the dwarf city.

"Snow White is drunk, someone take her some where she can sober up." One of the King's said dismissively.

"No milord." Joyful stated as she walked into the throne room. "It is important that you hear your terms of resignation."

"Oh... Ssshober up? I dat what... what yoush bashtards want!? Not to... fff-plow me cheeks over cheeks like your... butt hole father's did to Snow White?" Oh that shook to Dwarf Kings as Weiss continued with burning rage in her eyes. "Yoush sat your... lazy... good fer nothin... butts on those chairs... based on a lie! Yoush... ruin and poishun my home for... three hundred yearsh!" Weiss looked like she was standing on pure unadulterated rage right now, her accusingly pointing her finger downwards nearly toppled her over. "Yoush do nothing... while yoush people try to... to..." That indomitable rage seemed to cool as Weiss was hit by a wave of sorrow, Joyful help her over to a conveniently chair sized rock and the Wyrm shifted it's bulk to help support her. "Yoush... you let your people try to murder my friend." Weiss visibly sobered as she continued, though there was still the flushness in her face of light drunkeness. "Now my daughter is in the hands of the monster you helped make, so out of respect of what the rest of your family has done for mine I will offer you a choice, with the understanding that I disgust myself beyond my ability to comprehend by doing so." Saying that, Joyful's numerous siblings dragged into the ruined courtroom several large sacks of gold. "I will gift you, enough of the ill gotten gains you have stolen from my people that you will get to live what's left of your lives comfortably far away from here."

"And the other option?" One of the so called kings asked more so out of curiosity then anything else. Towards that end, the Wyrm growled pleasurable at them with a predatory grin, as if anticipating a very small but enjoyable non the less meal.

* * *

The former king's subjects didn't know what choice their monarch's made, only that they were under new management and their original strategy had changed: with the Queen of Ever After now on board for their invasion of Riordan, though now predominantly in search of her Daughter and Riordan's renegade monarch instead of food and other resources, their original strategies were undergoing major changes. As the chart devised by Mira and Sparrow demonstrated, their first and biggest obstacle to entering Riordan, it's vast number of carnivorous unpleasant wildlife, was effectively under Weiss's control or would be once she was in range for her abilities to take effect. The second biggest obstacle would also be the one that came immediately after, Riordan's undead warriors but it was Darling that came up with a countermeasure against that. Said countermeasure though was quite odd, two flying carpets which had been tacked together their bottom sides facing each thus forming a large bulge in the middle.

"Before you asked, it was the only way I could keep it from melting to the center of the planet after I grew out of the Goblin armor." Saying that Darling removed the clips and revealed, floating between the two carpets one of which was removed, a rounded shield that was glowing with the light of powerful purification magic.

"Raven's puri-whatever thingy?" Sparrow asked looking at the shield in question.

"A what?" One dwarf asked looking particularly confused.

"A infinite supply of magic one that has a tendency of treating everything it comes into contact with, especially the demonic, undead and damned, as kindling wood." Darling's explanation startled the dwarfs. "Good to know, now if you can figure out a way of harvesting that power for the creation of anti-undead weapons, we could probably win this thing." The dwarfs looked down at the shield and then back to Darling, then back to the shield, before finally landing on Darling.

"Say this does work, say that our 'kind and merciful monarch' does manage to turn the first layer of defenses against them. Say that this shield does as advertised and turns undead to ashes in mass. What about what happens next?" The dwarf craftsman asked looking greatly concerned.

"Next?" Mira asked cocking a brow as she looked down rather suspiciously at the dwarf.

"What happens when in the process of doing this little mad scheme we are left face to face with the latest in a long line of spell casters who have turned their home land in a giant mass of craters and canyons by shooting magic bombs at it!" The Dwarf was seething in rage by this point in time. "Far be it for me to question the wisdom of a noble, fairy tale character and a sorceress, but considering the fact that we are the least liked of all the beings that Riordan's people have encountered, and they don't even have enough self restraint to avoid turning their own homeland into a smoking ruin, but pissing them off seems ludicrously suicidal."

"Man makes a point." Sparrow admitted with a shrug of his shoulders, he's seen what happens when a Warlock cuts loose, thank god mother's for druids to shape the landscape back into something useful again.

"Perhaps her majesty's aid can provide us with more information." Mira commented looking at the entrance way as Joyful walked into the room.

"And how is her drunkenness today?" The Dwarf Craftsman asked his voice betraying not one hint of respect for their new ruler.

"Asleep. She has been briefed on the report that her daughter sent to us, in which she attempts to detail her observations on where she and the Mad Queen are and to what they are planning. Once she has rested she plans to negotiate with Riordan's proper queen, her god mother it should be noted, for aid in tracking down their respective way ward family members and ensuring that they are returned to them safe and sound." Joyful explained her tone of voice indicating that the day was quite exhausting for them.

"Speaking of, we have some specialty projects that we would like help with." Mira snapped her fingers and soon hunter and Dexter carried in a massive oversize blade, much too large to entertain the idea of anything short of a ogre wielding it. "Remember our chat about the huge undead warrior? This was his blade, and we need help modifying it so that we can actually use it." The circumstances of the curse resulting in Blue Beard's resurrection recreated not only a crude, if not oversize, manifestation of his body from materials on hand, but also a equally crude oversize manifestation of his weapon forged by master smith dwarfs and captive goblins and imbued with the power to reap life and empower the wielder of the blade through Morgan's curse. The blade was virtually indestructible and that is precisely what made it so god mother be damned hard to modify.

"Not to mention these." Hunter followed up by depositing the contents of a sack full of rebar, pipes basically scrap metal onto the same table as the sword, the chunks of metal Faybelle had chipped out of the stone body of Blue Beard, imbued to be on the receiving end of the power stolen by the sword. "Now, do you have someone that can help us or not?"

"Not us, only one person I can think of that would touch this with a six foot pole: The grand master." Suddenly, the door leading into the back room slammed open. He was shorter then the average dwarf, his nose and ears were longer too, Mira could swear she detected a hint of goblin in his lineage. Not as obvious though as the chunk of golem rendered stone that was his arm, a eyeglass secured by the strap of a eye patch held in place what Mira hoped was a glass eye. And he was old, very old, older then the old men who sat on the throne. Lumbering up to the table the dwarf picked up the blade in that over sized stone hand and examined it side to side.

"Tell me witch, what exactly did you do to my sword?"

* * *

 **Author's Note** :

rmarcano123: I talked Ever After High and Overlord over the weekend with some friend's of mine little over two years ago and this is the crystallization of my ideas.

seaeyes: No, I think she passed out somewhere in the middle whereas Schnee would have been somewhere at the end, I believe the greater shock for her was watching the spitting image of the husband she arranged for her daughter doing the deed.

Zwei Eis: Indeed. At the moment she's trying to use it, it's the only thing that's keeping Morgan from simply going into her head and taking the information that she wants from her, and the only reason why Morgan's letting her tag along is because she has information she needs.

DJ: No Problemo. Your Welcome. Hermione hates everyone, it's part of the side effects of being on the other side of a obscuris. The thing you have to realize is that Hermione's sleeping curse was never a actual curse in the technical sense, instead of being woken up by her true love she's woken up by who ever the fairies decide to marry her off in a hundred years hence. When Titania discovered that Hermione was pregnant with Briar she decided that would be the Pomeranian she got for her own daughter. Part of that hating everything she meets deal is a overwhelming sense of racism and superiority, Angry didn't take to it very well.

Charlie: Yes that was probably the idea.

Wade: Yeah, sorry about that, last week was crazy.

Zarsla: Your welcome.


	67. Chapter 67

**Author's Note** : Not much to say right now. Got some Ideas for a new fic and I wanna go crystalize them now. Bye. Read, Review, Favorite and Enjoy!

* * *

Chapter 67: Past Regrets

The little Golem/Dwarf/Goblin creature led the group of Ever After High Students into his personal forge, notably without either the sword that he claimed to have built or the bits of armor that they wished for him to reforge. Instead the strange little man who claimed that the group had violated his work appeared to have returned to what he was already doing, using bare stone hand to shape metals into weapons, in this case some kind of arrows. He seemed intent on ignoring his would be guests.

"Excuse me sir..."

"You're still here!?" The little creature asked glaring contemptuously at the group.

"Yes now if you wouldn't mind." For the second time the owner of the forge interrupted Briar, not by speaking but by pulling on a leaver. A large cage open, releasing from within a creature that vaguely looked like a giant wholly Rhino on a tread mill, but it wasn't on the treadmill anymore. The creature with the lance shaped face snorted in derision at the students and started walking forward glaring with contempt. "Ashlyn!" Briar commanded and immediately the blonde moved in, taking the beast from the side and rubbing her hands where she knew he would be the most sensitive, the pride animal of Dwarfs the Bronto was now putty in her hands. "Now then perhaps-Yipe!" Sparrow tackled Briar to the ground as a spear flew over head. The smith picked up another of the dozens of spears and prepared to lampoon the group a second time, only to be unexpectedly stopped by Hopper who dropped from the ceiling in a half transformed state and landed on him pinning the smith to the ground.

"There now if there's no more interruptions." Sparrow pushed Briar out of the way a second time as the spear that was thrown earlier soared back into the room and Sparrow caught it. However he was struggling with it, wrestling with a unknown unseen force that was keen on driving the spear into it's target. A target Sparrow realized was not him but rather Briar based on the direction that Spear tip was pointing. "A dwarf that can use magic!? That's... So... Not... FAIR!" The spear was slipping as Sparrow struggled with it, Hunter however spotted the glowing runes that lined the length of the shaft and thinking quickly used his ax to smash it to pieces, neutralizing the struggle with the weapon. "Thanks Hunter. Briar are you..." The sound of snoring confirmed the fate of the one called Sleeping Beauty. "Right. Ashlyn think you can convince the little troll to stop trying to kill us?" Sparrow asked as he took a breath after wrestling with the weapon.

"I'll try. Let's take him out of home field advantage first." With that, Hopper and Hunter worked together to move the little monster back into the room where they first met. They had no doubt that he could swing that giant blade with ridiculous ease that was not befitting a black smith, but whenever he looked in the direction of that blade all that he seemed to see filled him with a profound sense of disgust. "We seem to have gotten off on the wrong foot. I'm Ashlynn what's your name?" The girl who had made the pet of the smith into her personal plaything asked crouched down to his level.

"You know my name it's right there above my forge!" The group turned their attention to the illegible symbol above the door leading into the smith. "Don't any of you blighted people learn dwarfish anymore!?" The dwarf barked realizing that no the group did not actually know his name. "It's Sindri you blighted people!"

"Right. Sindri let's start off with a easy question. Why do you think this is your sword?" Ashlyn asked realizing the task laid out for them would not be a easy one.

"Not all of it you idgit!" The dwarf picked up the blade and held it in front of the group showing them the guard with the same symbol as that on top of the door. "I made this part, but some idgit went ahead and welded all this crud on top of it, just look at the size of this thing." The mad little Dwarf swung the weapon through empty air several times causing the students to back away. "The balance is completely off who did you people make this thing for a mountain troll!?"

"Well, you've got the size right." Ashlyn commented recalling the sight of a giant figure of stone frozen mid swing as it was torn open and had it's guts ripped out.

"And what is this stink on it?" Sindri took a long hard whiff of the blade. "Undead? Why the hell does this thing smell like the undead!?"

"At a peak of curiosity, who did you make this blade for anyway?" Ashlyn asked realizing that the blade was a touchy topic. "Some prince who use to live upside, Blue Something." The dwarf stated lodging the oversize blade off in a chunk of stone.

"Blue Beard?" Ashlyn asked recalling the name of that hated man they got the blade from.

"That's the one." Sindri replied snapping stone fingers.

"Do you know what that man did in his free time?" Ashlyn asked narrowing her eyes into a glare.

"It wasn't some big secret if that's what you mean." The dwarf stated rolling his eyes.

"Then why did you help him?" Ashlyn accused in a growl.

"Wasn't my family he murdered and raped." Sindri snorted in derision, if not for what he said next the students would simply think him callous. "Not like it did me any good, the lot of em never talked to me again after that, suppose that's like them being dead."

"My apologies for your loss." Ashlyn stated in a sympathetic tone of voice.

"Ah what do you care!?" Sindri had gone straight back to grizzled unfriendly old man. "We were driven under ground by magic users like you centuries ago! I've had to watch my people dwindle and die off living in fear for over three hundred years!"

"Of what? Who are you people afraid of?" Ashlyn asked seeing just a tiny bit of fear in the eyes of the old man.

"We call him Loki, for the war god." The dwarf stated dismissively.

"Ah excuse me." Cupid was the next one to step forward. "But Loki is the god of Mischief, not war."

"Hmph. That's the new generation for you, what did your daddy tell you some fairy tale to make the big bad monsters not seem so scary anymore?" Sindri asked making jazz hands in mocking tones. "What did your parents tell you? That he was a trickster, a liar, a manipulator? Oh it's all true, but what do you think wars are made of?" The dwarf had a haunted look on his face as he recalled the stories. "Only naive children imagine all war gods as being like your Aries. Vicious savage brutes wading through the battle field only striking at the enemies within reach of his blades. No a real war god is one who can bring down a army by whispering the right lie in the right ears."

"And when that fails?" Ashlyn asked gulping in fear.

"Then he reminds his enemies that he's only half god, the other half is giant." Sindri stated and now there was no one who wasn't paying attention. After all the boys knew better then anyone the dangers of a enemy that can alter their size at will to slip free from their grasp or just smash the enemy with overwhelming brute strength. "You guys probably know him as someone different though, a Wizard who once meant to start a war by turning a princess into a swan and daring her would be prince into piercing her heart with a arrow."

Duchess tensed up at that statement.

"Another Prince Charming? So was this... Loki you're talking about responsible for Blue Beard being the way he was?" Ashlyn asked tilting her head off to the side.

"I bet I know a way we can find out. Think the door's still open?" Sparrow asked prompting a horrified reaction from Duchess.

"Oh no." Duchess began swinging her arms in front of her as if chasing away some kind of nightmarish entity. "Oh no. Oh no no no no no no no no no no no!" What else was she suppose to say? Everyone who went inside that book came out looking like they had seen their worst nightmares came to life.

"The legacy orchard has probably gone back by now anyway, and if it hasn't then it probably will have by the time we can get there." Mira explained prompting a sigh of relief from Duchess. "But I bet there's a way to communicate with the beings inside of the book." Mira went off somewhere muttering about something leaving the rest of the conversation behind in the process.

"Right. What's your history with this trickster then?" Ashlyn asked resuming the conversation.

"His M.O I'm more familiar with, takes advantage of people's pride to have them kill one another. Remember my spear that your little friend chopped in half?" Sindri asked pointing towards the broken spear that Sparrow was still holding. "It was just a dare, to make a spear that would hit it's target no matter how far away they are. Only when it came time to collect I found out it ended up in the guts of Riordan's young princess."

"Raven?" Ashlyn asked looking surprised, showering with Raven she recalled that her body was covered in scars she didn't see anything in her side.

"No yah daft Twat Morgan!" Sindri barked glaring angrily at Ashlyn.

"Indestructible regarded as the single greatest threat this realm and several others have ever known Morgan?" Sparrow asked looking incredulous with the concept.

"What you think she was always like that? News flash boy, people haven't failed to kill her cause she's nigh invincible. she's made herself nigh invincible because people kept trying to kill her!" Sindri barked looking angry. "Maybe if I had succeeded this whole mess we're in could have been avoided, then again the Queen of Riordan wouldn't have stop at just ripping my arm of and making me tell her where my would be employer was."

"Do you know where he is?" Ashlyn asked, realizing with that very relevant piece of information they could save themselves whole lot of trouble. "If I did do you think I would have thrown that spear at you and not him?" The dwarf snapped back full of spite.

"Then when we track him down, armor and a sword would be a huge help." Ashlyn stated trying to steer the subject back on target.

"No." Sindri snapped again.

"Even if we get the lady who tore off that arm to tell you to?" That caused a bit of a reaction out of the ancient dwarf.

* * *

Apple had resorted to wrapping herself in Nevermore's wings just to stay warm. Apple had really regretted not being able to pack her things now, but how was she suppose to know that Morgan was going to grab her and drag her out into the middle of the arctic ocean.

"Ms-M. Morgan." Apple stated mustering all do disrespect to the witch woman. "I trust that there is a re-re-reason for our suffering."

"Oh there is, yours especially." Morgan replied in a ominous tone of voice as she steered the ship.

"L-L-Lovely." Apple huffed expelling white smoke.

Morgan beached the ship at a glacier and walked onto it, followed shortly behind by Apple, Nevermore and Raven who held up a torch of green fire to warm the three of them.

"Is this the other temple?" Raven asked as she used her torch to look around the area.

"Ursula is going to meet you at the bottom, myself and Apple have business of our own to get to." Morgan explained as she scanned the horizon.

"Good luck down there." Apple stated holding Raven's hands.

"Thanks. You too." Saying that Nevermore and Raven entered the temple and started to go down, leaving the torch behind with Apple who part with the two with a kiss on Raven's cheek.

"So tell me, 'Evil Queen' what role do I play in this?" Apple asked glaring at Morgan suspiciously.

"Give it a second." Saying that, Morgan stood next to Apple and stomped her foot, at the same time, shooting pain went straight through Apple's spine and her face twisted in agony.

"YYYYEEEEEAAAAAAOOOOOCH!" Apple hopped on one foot over to the nearest snow bank and jammed her foot inside as she tried to dull the pain. "What was that for!?" Morgan grabbed tight onto Apple's arm and dug her fingers into the nearest ice wall with a measure of force that was unnecessary. "Let go of me!" Apple demanded glaring hatefully at the witch.

"You don't want me to do that." Suddenly, off in the distance, a huge amount of water was forming into a dome shape, Apple felt the ice berg shake beneath her feet and looked above her to see the mountains of white ice and snow behind her move. Then things took a turn for the crazy. That huge dome of water continued to expand until it turned into a huge torrential downpour directly on their heads. Apple coughed out freezing cold salt water and looked up in horror to witness a giant white tower emerging from the water, or rather it looked like a tower, in terms of huge thickness and towering into the sky. But then it moved, bent and looked down at their heads with huge slit eyes. "What the..." Apple stared in shock at the monster before her.

"You already met Nevermore's Father Brogan." Now Morgan gestured to the huge serpentine creature looming it's head before them. "This would be her mother, Midgard Sormer, the first Jormangandr."

"...Okay..." Apple found herself forgetting about the pain in her foot for the time being, suffice to say she had other things to think about right now.

"Now go inside and dry off." Morgan sucked all the water out of her drenched clothing. "The adults have to talk." Saying that Morgan pushed Apple into the massive underground structure before her.

" _Great._ " Apple noted as the dull ache in her foot started to come back. " _I have to dry off before I go back outside to send another message, and I'm not going to be able to move very far or fast with my foot busted up like this._ " Then a sudden realization came to Apple. " _Was that the idea? Did Morgan know about the first message I sent? No no, that doesn't make any sense._ " After all, why would Morgan let Apple expose key details about her primary most base of operations to those that she considered a threat. " _Oh no..._ "

* * *

Once Weiss had sobered up she was fitted with the first set of battle mage armor the dwarfs could get their hands on, to help amplify her natural ability to control animals, and loaded onto the fastest carriage they could get their hands on being pulled by the Kirin that Ever After High's students had captured during the battle at their school. Various dwarfs were loaded onto Bronto's hauling battle carriages and armed with their experimental weapons known as rifles, they picked up various unpleasant animals native to Riordan along the way: Stymphalians, Fiends, Basilisks and the works. Upon receiving Apple's intel report and having the contents interpreted and narrowed down to one specific location Weiss gathered together these forces and set out for the mountains. The unicorn like dragons led the convoy through the mountains and the remnants of a temple were peeping out of the stone.

"Is that the temple that Apple's report mentioned?" Weiss asked looking up at the rocky temple in question.

"According to Mrs. Shard's collaboration, yes." Joyful stated sticking her head out the window.

"If there's a way inside I want to know about it." Weiss stated uncompromising.

"According to Mrs. Shards the entrance to the temple is located..." The two individuals looked outside as they saw a huge shadow pass over them. Stopping the Carriage Weiss stepped out to see a huge figure perched on top of the temple that they were in the process of trying to raid, a hulking warrior of a dragon with a broken horn glaring hatefully at them.

"Well, well, well, as I live and breath. If it isn't the woman who drove my master into hiding Snow White and her Seven Hundred Dwarfs, armed to the teeth." Brogan stated smirking revealing rows of Sharkish Teeth. "Oh how I have hoped and prayed for a opportunity like this, to wreak her revenge upon her tormentors!" The Dragon loomed upon his back legs, the numerous dwarfs found hair and snow being raised into the air as the dragon sucked upon air, the Animals fled in terror and the Kirin struggled with their harness's as they tried to break free. Then, like that, the monster before them was unleashing the essence of death itself, the dragon blew it's flames.

* * *

 **Review Section** :

rmarcano123: Thank you for saying so.

Zwei Eis: Thanks for saying so but this story isn't over yet.

Zarsla: Thank you for saying so. What can I say I'm a charmer. I was going to introduce it as part of the lead up by now it'll probably be a flash back story post climax. I'm trying, mostly they're in the stage of the relationship where they think they have bigger things to worry about and are outright terrified of being together. Hmm... Nothing comes to mind I'm afraid.

Wade: That wasn't the intention. It was the idea. Still going to be a little while before they try to address their feelings with each other though.

Charlie: Thank you for saying so. Eh probably. Me too.

DJ: Yah know what? I agree, Officially Canon!


	68. Chapter 68

**Author's Note** : Not much to Say right now, Read, Review, Favorite and Enjoy!

* * *

Chapter 68: This Means War, Swan Princess

The entire mountainside was wreathed in flames, even the stone was starting to change shape under the combination of heat and pressure. Brogan let up on the fiery assault and smirked in satisfaction at having roasted the entire convoy. However something very strange started happening to Brogan's flames, as they suddenly formed a cone shape and started rising into the air, before eventually taking on a hour glass shape, that then transitioned into the form of a phoenix. Once all the flame had risen into the air Weiss and her entourage was revealed to still be intact the fire crashed back to the ground, revealing the form of a panting teenager.

"God Mother I hate that woman!" Duchess snapped as one of the dwarfs moved in to support her. "I swear, if I ever get my hands on her, I'll rip Morgan into ribbons!" The young witch in training snapped radiating murderous intent that made her helpers back away in fear.

"Ah. The back up actress for my Master's Daughter, what a pleasure to meet you." Brogan gave out a polite laugh, he wasn't amused, rather he was deliberately mocking Duchess. "Come then Faker! Show me the half baked power that you think makes you worthy of my master's name!"

"I'll make you into a nice pair of boots!" Saying that Duchess ran towards the cliff and jumped off, assuming the form of a phoenix again as she flew directly towards Brogan.

"Quickly! Everyone into that temple while he's still distracted!" To Weiss's barking the Dwarfs, their convoy significantly lessened thanks to their pack animals having been scared off, immediately began looking for a entrance into the temple.

In the mean time, Duchess found herself battling hurricane force winds once more as Brogan inhale en mass, while at the same time blowing air out through his nose. No Brogan wasn't getting ready for another fire breath attack, quite the opposite actually, for he was using the other half of dragon breath abilities, breath out and suck in. In other words, Duchess had made a fatal mistake to attack as a fire type monster, against a creature that treated fire the same way most people treated air, and thus Duchess found herself dragged into the maw of the beast whom snapped down on her. One would hesitate to call it luck, but Duchess was able to turn back to human form at the last second and latch on to something soft and squishy before she found herself in the monster's gullet.

"Alright stay calm stay calm, I mean Pinocchio did all this right?" Except for the part that Pinochio was a puppet not a person, and that was a whale not a dragon, and it was most likely two parts fiction to one part truth if patterns was any indication. "Alright new topic new topic." Duchess assessed her surroundings in order to figure out to what degree of screwed she was, as it is. "Those are teeth, so that's the tongue, which makes this..." Duchess cringed in horror as she realized that she was swinging around on Brogan's gag reflex. "Oh sh..." Duchess didn't even have time to curse as Brogan's stomach contents mixed with fire and were evacuated out of his stomach. Duchess resumed the form of the phoenix in the nick of time as she was expelled onto the mountain side with sufficient force that she was returned to human form, with fried vomit clinging to her clothing. "You... You... I just got this outfit!" Duchess shrieked her voice thick with pure outrage.

"Guu! Gack!" Brogan coughed into the abyss below that was the lower part of the mountains. "And you reached down my throat and made me cough up my supper, so who has been more violated here?"

"The guy who just tried to barbeque a whole hoard of people has no right to play the victim!" Duchess snapped pointing fingers accusingly.

Now over the shock of being reduced to vomit Duchess leaped over the edge of the cliff and spread her arms wide, having already learned her lesson of using fire against a fire breather this time she took the form of a thunder bird. Duchess flapped her wings and hurled bolts of lightning at the dragon, the beast's fire breath served as a conductor for discharges of electrical energy resulting in explosive bursts of power.

The rest of the convoy made it all the way to the temple, Sparrow and Blondie looked up high and sized up the task ahead of them.

"How do we get up there?" A chunk of stone was blown away as cast of from Duchess and Brogan's attacks came down next to them. "Preferably without being fried." Sparrow fired a arrow into the top of the tower, he followed that up by using that arrow as a make shift hook to loop a length of rope around it with a impressive arm. "Cover me while I tie this down!" The Kirin intercepted the cast off bolts of lightning with their katana like horns, absorbing the cast off lightning into their body. While the horse dragons worked Sparrow removed the heaviest crate he could find and secured the other end of his line to it. "Everyone help me pull this to the top!" The Dwarfs and Blondie helped Sparrow yanking on the rope pulling the suit case, hoisting it all the way to the top. "Now everyone let go!" The group was momentarily confused by Sparrows shout but they complied anyway, everyone but Sparrow let go of the rope, now free of it's weight the suitcase dropped like a sack of hammers and Sparrow was sent all the way to the top, grabbing Blondie before he went, also causing her to scream all the way to the top.

"Boy's more clever then he looks." One dwarf commented looking up high.

"Think we can do that?" The top of the tower was suddenly hit by a bolt of lightning. "Forget I asked."

"You could have warned me you were planning on dragging me up here!?" Blondie snapped glaring at Sparrow hatefully.

"That kind of thing goes so much better when you're not expecting it." Sparrow stated as he pulled himself and Blondie up onto the temple. "Now I suggest you put that lock knack of yours to good use and get us some cover." As Blondie was about to protest another bolt of lightning came down above their heads, Sparrow diffused it by firing a arrow into the air. No Sparrow did not suddenly develop lightning fast reflexes that can shoot a bolt of lightning out of the sky. Rather, his arrows had been enchanted with a minor curse that could attract Duchess's power that was originally based on a curse towards them, by firing arrows randomly into the air he could divert the path of the bolts away from them. "I've only got so many arrows and that guy isn't going to run out of steam any time soon."

* * *

Raven was floating on top of a pool of water inside of the water temple, Nevermore was sprawled out on a beam above her when she noticed Apple limping down the stairs, freezing from the water drenched clothing she was wearing. Nevermore glided over to her, and with a fiery purple glow of her body super heated the air around her and evaporated the water from Apple's clothing.

"Thanks Nevermore." Apple didn't know when Nevermore got the power to light her entire body on fire but she was grateful for it all the same. However as her body heat died back down Apple saw a magic rune carved into her chest, purple on black wasn't easy to find and Apple realized that was probably Morgan's intention. "What has she been doing to you for the past nine month's girl?" Apple shifted her weight as she moved to pat Nevermore and found herself grunting in pain, her foot had developed a unhealthy color and Nevermore was only now just noticing, letting out a growl of dissatisfaction. "Morgan really is merciless isn't she?" Nevermore sat back, looked Apple straight in the eye, and held the bladed end of her tail in front of Apple's face. "What are-MMM!" To answer the question Apple failed to get the chance to finish, Nevermore was shoving her leathery tail into Apple's mouth. With the make shift bit gag in place Nevermore bent down and activated a magic symbol above her eye and breathed fire on Apple's foot. The fire acted with surgical precision, welding bone together and cauterizing internal bleeding, burning away damaged flesh until Apple's foot had been restored. "Thanks Nevermore." Though Apple's foot had been repaired she still found herself walking with a limp, Nevermore dragged over a piece of drift wood and Apple was now leaning on it like a cane. "...Thanks." Apple stated breathing out as she let go of Nevermore's tail. Now that there wasn't any pain shooting up her leg Apple looked down into the water was Raven tread water down below.

* * *

The Astral realm wasn't too different from the pool of water Raven was in, there was no gravity but Raven met resistance as she tried to move and the light was blurry as she tried to find the Maride. Raven's two traveling companions were dragging her all over the place, the Ifirit constantly sought out new sources of magic to burn through like the living flame that it was while the Djinn wildly went around in different directions like the crazed horse that it was.

"You look like you're having trouble." Raven looked around to see the familiar form of Ursula floating behind her. "What is it dear? Your mother did tell you that you would be meeting me here yes?" Ursula asked looking amused with Raven's befuddled look. "But that is not important right now. Your friends seem to be having a bit of difficulty without some counter balance." The two wild spirits emphasized Ursula's point by going around so fast that they left Raven Dizzy. "The Maride will never approach you with that aura around you. Normally the task of calming them down would be the Dao's job. But now it would seem that you must do that." Ursula revealed the presence of a bluish clone of herself emerging from behind her, her very own Maride that she's already forged a contract with. Her mother did say that Ursula was a expert on this subject after all, so this really shouldn't surprise her. "Luckily, I can loan you a little flexibility."

Saying that the two rampaging spirits were made to hold still, small cocoons of air and fire formed around them before the shapeless entities were made to take form. Raven was a little embarrassed when she saw the Djinn, cloaked only by a screen made of air taken solid form, golden piercings drawing attention to her private parts, and a turban wrapped around the head that was the same as Raven's. The Ifrit on the other hand practiced a little more modesty, wrapped in actual cloth what while it left something to imagination was still quite loose with nothing underneath. Also it was on fire. Raven's attention was drawn to it's face, and noted that she actually looked quite good with the tastefully applied makeup that both drew attention to and contrasted with her purple eyes, the long goatee ornament she was wearing though was simply bizarre and Raven wondered if it had something to do with the fashion of the desert lands that this thing was suppose to come from. More important then the duo's taste in fashion, they both looked angry, Raven presumed that she wasn't a very accommodating hostess.

"Ah hello there." The two spirits seemed unimpressed.

"I'd start with the Djinn if I was you." Ursula stated looking amused by Raven's confusion.

"Right." Raven floated over to the wind spirit first. "So..."

"You shoved me into a bottle. Then you forgot about me." The Djinn stated in a voice that was both Raven's and not Raven's. "How the heck do you forget about a magical wish granting Genie!?"

"Well... there are a number of precautionary tales in place about making wishes with a genie." Raven stated awkwardly scratching the back of her head. "At the time I thought that I could no more take the risk of making a wish with you then letting someone else do it."

"So the next best option was to grab a soda bottle from the trash and stuff me inside it? From the trash!" It seems that it was especially hung up about that part. "Do you have any idea about what it's like to be crammed the first place someone thought convenient?"

"Yes actually a little." Raven stated looking down guiltily. "After my mom went nuts for the first time, Baba left in horrible condition, and Dad was too busy running the armies to be able to look after me, though he tried for a long while. At around ten years old I found myself being bounced around different private schools, I didn't stay too long because as I would later learn, I had this bad habit of building up explosive levels of energy and creating disaster whenever I let it off. So I kept being pushed off to the next place, and the place after that, and the place after that."

"Trying to build sympathy by coming from common ground doesn't work when you are responsible for my common ground." The Djinn snapped, and rightfully so in his opinion.

"I know. I didn't think of you as a person and I just used you for my own convenience but didn't release you when I was done." Raven stated unable to look the Djinn in the eye.

"At least you show remorse for your actions." The Djinn stated huffing somewhat satisfied. "And staying inside of you is better then that bottle."

"So you don't mind staying with me?" Raven asked cocking a brow in curiosity. "So long as we come back here once in a while." The Djinn replied sounding amicable all of a sudden.

"Okay then." Now that Raven had appeased the Djinn she need to speak with the destructive ball of anger that was a Ifrit. "Hi there."

"What happened to you?" The Ifrit's voice was like Raven's but it boomed so loudly that it rung her ears. "When I first met you, you seethed with more power and rage then you could ever produce on your own. Now all that I see is a shell of your former self explain!" The Ifrit growled equal parts confused and annoyed with the young witch.

"It's called a obscuris, it's a concentrated tumorous mass of magic that produces a near infinite stream of magical energy in exchange for trapping me in a constantly shifting and warping field of space threatening to rip my body apart. By pure luck I encountered a creature that was able to remove that tumor, now I seek a new less destructive source of power." Raven explained while she gauged the reactions of the Ifrit. "A hahaha! Oh it's indeed a hot day in these icy shores for someone to say that about me!" The Ifrit let out a polite laugh, as if going along with some joke that someone else had made that he didn't really find funny.

"I'm serious, the Earth, Water and Wind Genies are brought into the picture to serve as conduits into and from our bodies and our homelands. But it's the Ifrit, you, who burns off enough of that power so that we can control the flow that is the key stone to this plan." Raven explained projecting a calm and even tone of voice.

"Here's the problem with that plan, you as a host: Sucks! Do you have any idea how much raw power I eat up? There's a reason why I'm suppose to be saved for last!" Indeed, once again Raven and her poor ability to plan ahead came back to bite her, had she known she would actually be going through the family inheritance ritual she would have pulled out a Dao and a Maride out of the astral plain while she still had the ridiculous amount of power of the Obscuris. "Yes I know, but I can put out a amount that is above average, that guy is putting out a huge amount of power, if we can find and convince Maride to come along then most of the power of the full deal will be at your munching convenience. After that all we need is the Dao, and the power of Riordan will be at your disposal." The Ifrit seemed to ponder the situation some for a bit, before smirking.

"Let's see what we can do to find a Maride."

"There is little need for that." A huge navy blue mass flowed down and took on the appearance of a large cloud with eye slits. "With that overbearingly calm aura I thought a Dao had wandered in here. Tell me young one are you suicidal or do you simply not know how to forge a contract with spirits?"

"My friends would probably tell me it was the first but It's mostly the latter." Raven replied sheepishly.

"And yet here you are, I had mistaken you for a Dao, you remind me so much of one working off of brute force and will power alone. That might appeal to the two of them as a host, but it doesn't appeal to me." The Maride replied indicating the Djinn and the Ifrit next to her.

"But it does as a roommate? Were you not planning on joining this time share with not only the two of them but also a Dao of which I am very similar? What's the difference?" Raven asked gesturing to herself.

"The Dao holds no power over me, simply influence, as a being that embodies the flexibility of water I can compromise to fill his needs so long as mine are met. But you, you would hold power over me, and to trap the wind without the ground or the water, you do not compromise." The Maride stated her intentions on the matter quite clear.

"I have been beaten down, my entire family has been made to cater to a elaborate stage play that defines the shape of the political landscape of an entire realm. We serve as a mutual enemy to unite against so that all the armies of all the kingdom's can do something else with their time than kill each other, complete with a limitless supply of disposable monsters whose blades they can throw themselves on." Raven glared into misty eyes with a defeated and sad look. "This is not the world that I desire it is the one I live in, tell me now if you think I don't know how to compromise."

"You are a strange one youngling." The voice of the Maride changed as it compressed into a new form, familiar and humanoid in shape Raven found herself looking at herself in a long evening gown with no legs coming out of the bottom, long wavy hair coming off the top like she was deep under water, and the way that it flowed unnaturally gave the impression that it was going to stay that way. "But I accept your terms."

* * *

Raven had been pulled back by force to the physical plain. Nevermore took note of Raven gasping for air and thus swooped in and plucked Raven out of the water and dropped her next to Apple.

"Raven are you okay?" Apple asked examining Raven's body.

"I'm fine but I'm going to need some help getting out of this mad place." Raven stated as she focused the bulk of her concentration on keeping the three genies inside of her under control.

"I could say the same thing." Apple commented a bitter laugh in her voice as she recalled the throbbing pain in her foot. Rolling her eyes, Nevermore ducked under the two and smoothly scooped both girls up onto her back before walking up the stairs.

"Did you have the chance to think about what you're going to do?" Raven asked as she maneuvered to sit comfortably on her dragon's back.

"A few ideas." Apple admitted with reluctance. "But almost everything I come up with ends up relying on your people to do most of the work for us."

"Is that a bad thing?" Raven asked cocking a suspicious brow.

"It destroyed the relationship between our two family's and annihilated our ability to look after ourselves you tell me." Apple replied with a touch of salt.

"Point taken. So what is your plan?" Raven asked looking interested.

"I'm going to take the throne alright, so that I can dismantle it. I'm going to put people who cares about holding this country together in charge, I'm going to make sure that they know how to do it, and most importantly I'm going to fix the relationship between our two nations." Apple looked Raven straight in her eye as she said that.

"That's great and all Apple, but first we have some problems to deal with." Raven stated as she walked out of the temple, spotting a roaming mountain of scales that coiled into the sky.

"Oh I forgot about that." Apple commented looking up at the huge monster that Morgan had used her to summon.

"I trust that the Maride is comfortable?" Morgan asked sitting on a rock as she looked up at the beast that is commonly known as The World Serpent Midgardsormer.

"I'm holding them together, I would feel better if I had the Dao to help me." Raven replied rubbing the back of her neck.

"Good to know, now would you like to do something about this?" Morgan asked gesturing to the giant monster that she had apparently been conversing with while Raven was in the astral plane.

"What makes you think Raven can do anything to that thing?" Apple asked glaring at Morgan like she had suddenly grown a second head.

"I wasn't talking to her and I'm not talking to you." Apple looked down to see Nevermore giving her a knowing look, as if demanding that both she and Raven get off of her. Complying with the unspoken demand Raven and Apple both got off of the Dragon's back, allowing her slink off on her own. "She's getting Nevermore to talk with the big dragon?" Apple asked looking confused.

"Well, it makes sense, Mom listens to me..." Apple glared at Raven scornfully. "...Sometimes." Nevermore flew off all of a sudden, and it became apparent that Midgardsormer was quick to chase after her. "Well, it would appear to have work."

* * *

 **Review Section** :

rmarcano123: Seven hundred is a decent sized army. I already answered this question.

Zwei Eis: Well it's not over yet. But yes that she did.

lelcar: I'm afraid I don't find your insights as deep as I did before. Sorry.

DJ: Canon refers to something that exists within the context of a story, for instance Faybelle's dog being the offspring of her mother's dog that she used to de-curse Hermione, Canon. I based Sindri off of a mythical dwarf from Norse mythology responsible for the forging of various weapons for the gods including Thor's hammer Mijornir and Odin's spear Gungnir. Well I did mention a while back that Nevermore was part Jormangandr. Barely, but luckily she continues the White Family tradition of surrounding herself with a overwhelming number of competent people.

Wade: This is built on the premise that Morgan knew what Apple was doing at all, it could very easily just be a case of Brogan coming back home after waking up at the school and seeing Weiss and company there.

Charlie: Seems so. But yes, it is.


	69. Chapter 69

**Author's Note** : Not much to say today I'm afraid, we are nearing the end of this story thought. Read, Review, Favorite and Enjoy!

* * *

Chapter 69: You Have Messed Up, Snow White

For the fourth time in a row the sound of unlocking echoed off the top of the tower, the work of Blondie's lock knack trying to get through the mountain. Unfortunately there were at least twenty more left to go, even with Sparrow trying to locate the central locking mechanism. Unfortunately the only explanation that Sparrow could find right now was that said mechanism relies on magic to open, which he didn't have or couldn't use properly. A explosion that happened off to the side also reminded Sparrow of the battle happening in the sky at the moment that as they were right in the middle of means that they were right in the middle of that battle.

Brogan's fire breath sprayed super heated air and conducted Duchess's lightning strikes directly into his head, didn't even phase him, in addition to hard sword proof scales and wiry coiled impact absorbing muscles it seems that he was insulated as well. Duchess didn't know what she was suppose to do against this thing, she tried to immunize herself against Brogan's Fire breath, he chewed her up and spat her back out, she used lightning on him, he turned out to be protected against lightning, and she sincerely doubted that the relatively soft feathers of a stymphalian could pierce that scaly armored hide of his. Duchess found herself wracking her brain for a possible weakness when she recalled a rumor concerning a certain size changing monster who treated the boys of the heroes class like mice in the mitts of a cat.

" _That might work._ " Instead of continuing with the lightning strikes, Duchess went up into the air as fast as her wings would carry her.

Brogan briefly entertained the idea of chasing her after all he didn't want to be struck with lightning again, but if she was smart she wouldn't come back. Now Brogan could focus on wiping out the little hairy buggers. Even though Brogan thought that, fate was not as kind, looking up he saw more of the lightning coming down from the sky, blue this time though it made little difference to the dragon. Thus Brogan fired his breath at Duchess, but the lightning acted differently this time, instead of following the path of his fire breath it arced away in multiple directions and stopped the fire breath dead. Brogan only noticed the effects of the lightning when it hit him, hit by a wave of cold winds and struck his wings with freezing energy rendering them immobile and useless.

"Ah Cr-AAAAHHHH!" Brogan fell out of the sky and landed with a crash powdering wings in the process as he hit the side of the cliffs. But his grip was firm, motivated largely by pure unadulterated rage Brogan dragged himself up the cliff side and glared hatefully at the cloud formation where Duchess was now pelting him with hail the size of boarbatusk.

"Well... I hate to do this to yah, largely because I suspect it's just going to piss you off, but..." Sparrow notched arrow tipped with vials of explosive potion, aimed not at Brogan but rather the cliff side where he was hanging off of, and fired.

"RRRAAAAGGHH!"

The cliff side collapsed under the combination of explosive might and the weight of the great black beast as the last of the Convoy scrambled off, Brogan was sent falling deep below the mountain range.

"Going..." Brogan crashed on sharp rocks and bounced off. "Going..." The big angry dragon flipped as he dug claws into the mountain and glared up hatefully at the individuals above. "Ooh So close!" Sparrow stated cringing in imagined pain from the look that Brogan gave them. "Hey Blondie quick question." Blondie looked over the edge of the temple with Sparrow and now Duchess who transformed back to normal as she landed. "Say a few teenagers the size of oh say your thumbs manage to knock you down a couple thousand feet onto sharp pointy rocks and you had to climb all the way back up to rip those teenagers apart how mad do you figure you'd be?"

Suddenly Brogan inhaled his biggest breath yet and unleashed a tower of fiery breath nearly incinerating the three over curious teenagers.

"I'm gonna say mighty pissed Sparrow." Blondie replied as if stating the obvious.

"Think you can get us inside before he gets up here?" Sparrow asked checking to see if he still had Eyebrows.

"I don't think it's a matter of what he can do to us when he gets up here that we have to worry about Sparrow." As if confirming Duchess's fears, the dragon pulled off a section of stone, spat some kind of flamable goo onto it, then chucked it up over the group of teenagers. Duchess transformed her wing into that of a Thunder Bird and hurled a mass of snow at the flaming hunk of rock pushing it away before it exploded. "I think the problem here is what he can do to us while he's still down there."

The Dwarfs went to work, using hammers to break off stone from the mountain and pushing them over the edge onto Brogan. That only seemed to make the dragon more mad though.

"Blondie." Blondie looked over to Sparrow fearfully. "Locks?"

* * *

A convoy was rushing through the canyons of Riordan, it's carriages pulled by Drakes, roughly horse sized dragons that were nimbly climbing over stone, dragging the group over walls with impressive brute strength and various other feats of strength that bellied the comparatively thin frames of the beasts. Inside one of those carriages Darling along with her brothers Dexter and Daring were were dressed in newly minted armor courtesy of Sindri, Darling a notable grade higher then her brother's, but that would be because of the difference in where the raw materials came from.

"How's Blue Beard's armor working for yah Darling?" Dexter asked sizing his sister up and down.

"I feel dirty, this stuff is made out of the essence of what that guy did." Darling shivered as she thought about it.

"At least you didn't have to see what he did." Daring stated letting out a shiver.

"Point taken." Darling commented as she pulled out the long sword she had on her back.

Both the armor and the blade had a slightly demonic look about it, according to the pictures from the field trip both the sword and the armor shared similarities with the armor worn by Corvo, both had helmets with curled demonic horns and shoulder pads, arm guards, knee pads, gauntlets, boots basically anything that could be used to strike another being had spikes on them, presumably for extra damage dealing ability. The sword didn't look too different from when Blue Beard was swinging it around, aside from the fact that it was a fourth of the size it was when the troll sized undead monster in question was swinging it around, the slightly less notable tidbit though was the dragon's tooth that served as a hilt, another hard to spot difference was the light glow of Duchess's fire phoenix based magic. Darling saw Faybelle present the fang to Sindri, having stolen it from Raven's room, who in turn had plucked it from the mouth of her dragon, and it was still thick with her size changing power. Perhaps it was the overwhelming pride of the goblin/dwarf, or it was a result of his craftsmanship that it had only under gone slight modifications by Morgan's magic, but only the bare minimal number of possible changes had been made. That said, it was a extremely sturdy blade with excellent balance, and according to the dwarf the armor had some spectacular enchantments placed on it, the craftsmanship of Darling's brother's wasn't very sloppy either, if not far more plain looking, to be more accurate it was approximately the same, but instead of being made from the corpse of a high level undead their's was made out of the skinned corpses of Draugr.

"So I understand that we're using the same idea Mrs. Yaga had back at the school, using the armor made out of undead to camouflage ourselves against other undead." Dexter stated as he looked around nervously. "But why are we in a canyon? I mean thus far we've been through twenty caves, three canyons and a crater big enough to fit a town inside and based on the position of the stars and cycling of the sun we've barely gone twenty miles in two days. Isn't there a more direct route to Riordan's capital then this?"

Their goal was to deliver a summons to Jadis, Morgan's mother, in regards to the actions of her daughter and trying to form a alliance with her before the mad woman dumped anymore piles of curses on them.

"Yes. But according to this map Mira gave us it's thick with snarling monsters." Darling commented as she looked through the map in question, which aside from one narrow maze like path was thick with jolly roger stamps. "Not much in the way of land marks but it makes her point clear, perhaps if we..."

"SHH!" Dexter suddenly snapped.

"Excuse..."

"SHH!" Dexter snapped again, looking more fearful then he had before.

There was a quiet rumbling that had started shaking the carriage, the drakes suddenly ran off to the side seemingly in fear for their lives though it was hardly surprising, looking through the side window that was facing the direction they had been traveling the group saw a huge torrent of water coming their way, before the shift in gravity in the carriage indicated that their would be horses had started scaling the sheer walls of the canyon.

"Are we gonna make it?" Daring asked as he noticed the water was getting closer and closer to them.

The answer to his question was a rather resounding no, not at their current rate anyway. The Drakes though strong were fatigued from several days worth of travel, they had planned on taking a break in a couple of hours in the name of sleep, food, leg stretching and other necessities but that wasn't going to happen now. And yet, something caused them to pick up speed, as something on the other side grabbed hold of them and pulled them up onto dry land. Then came the knocking.

"Oh this can't be good." Daring reached over and pulled open the door, revealing a bony face wrapped in a simple looking platemail helmet like the one Daring and Dexter wore, one of Riordan's Draugr warriors. The armored skeleton took one look at the boys, but for some reason paid especial attention to Darling, before getting off the side of the carriage.

"What do you think they're doing?" Daring whispered into his brother's ear.

The Carriage shook as the Drakes were disconnected then chased away, in their place two of the Draugr stood, but rather then hooking the carriage up to them shadows formed beneath their feet and filled in the discarded harnesses, taking on the form of two new shadowy black drakes that the Draugr's were riding on.

"What the...?" Similarly, the other Draugr's also produced shadow like mounts as they moved around the carriage in a diamond formation.

"I think they mean to escort us." Said Daring.

"Or take us prisoner." Dexter commented.

"Hmm. I'm alright with that either way." Darling commented as she made a show out of getting comfortable.

"You are?" Dexter asked looking incredulous. "If they meant to chop us to bits they would have done so already, first step of figuring out your enemies strategy, ask them what they want with you."

With that, the group of would be diplomatic envoy's found themselves being escorted to parts unknown.

* * *

Several loud booming sounds echoed as Midgardsormer and Nevermore worked together to blast away chunks of ice, what the two of them had against the polar ice caps Apple would never understand. Either way they made a effort to rescue those living on the ice flow, some kind of polar bear people and some manner of Penguin harpy among various others. Perhaps of more interest was what Morgan was doing. Ever since the water temple Morgan had locked herself in the captain's cabin and was sat on a rocking chair polishing some kind of carpenter's tools. Perhaps of more interest though was what she was watching, some kind of news report in her native tongue. A tongue Apple did not know, though what she saw horrified her to no end. Under normal circumstances one would be hard press to say that anyone could be in two places at once, less through some kind of magic. However in the case of Midgardsormer, how exactly could she not be in two places at once, or five, or ten or a hundred! Such was the size of a creature that could wrap around the world and bite down on it's own tail. On the subject of which, Apple bore witness as said tail slammed into the coastline of Riordan with such great force that she punched a hole clean into the vast under ground network, and watched the changing water lines as the water first dropped then rose again. For some strange reason Apple couldn't quite comprehend at the moment, it seemed that Morgan was rather intent on drowning her own people.

"Didn't your mother ever tell you it's rude to spy on people?" Morgan asked as she inspected the shine on a chisel.

"Are you, the person who has spent the last decade doing nothing but spy on people, giving me a lecture on spying on people?" Apple asked looking seriously offended.

"Well, I do do it better then you." Morgan pointed out as she put the chisel down.

"What are those for anyway?" Apple asked looking at the tools suspiciously.

"Didn't you learn your lesson the last time about sending people into my safe houses?" Morgan asked cocking a brow suspiciously.

"So you did know about that." Apple noted a dangerous tone of voice present.

"No, your family simply prides itself on being predictable to a fault." Morgan replied as she put the tools down. "For instance, I know for a fact that there are zero consequences to telling you that we are on our way to Neverland, because the trap has already been set for anyone fool hardy enough to try to break in."

"Like you?" Apple asked cocking a brow suspiciously.

"Precisely." Morgan stated with a shrug of her shoulders.

"Why then are we going to Neverland?" Apple asked as she looked confused.

"Because it is the most ideal location for picking up wand carving wood." Morgan replied as if she had been asked a obvious question. "And it is the second most suitable place to summon a Dao, short of the temple that my dragon is doubtlessly ripping to pieces right now." Morgan's words shocked Apple to her core. "Oh that got your attention didn't it?" Morgan switched channels on the mirror that doubled as a window outside of the cabin. They were given a first person view of Brogan as he savagely tore about a mountain side trying to get to Apple's classmates and several close family members/family friends. "Make no mistake, I will have the information that I want, whether you give it to me, whether I figure it out on my own, it doesn't honestly matter to me right now, getting Raven ready for her coronation is more important to me." A loud crash echoed as Brogan hurled another flaming hunk of rock up the mountain. "But what my agents do in the meantime depends very much on the surroundings." Morgan slammed her carving chisel down as if she was making a point. "I never wanted this. I told the lot of you over and over again to stay out of my way, that I despise getting children involved, and you, all of you would not listen. Which means that this is entirely your fault." Morgan sat back into her chair with a type of casualness that blew away the serious atmosphere that she had built up. "Which means no guilt for me. That temple is important to me, and it's important to my people, so I will protect it. But it's not more important then putting that Monster down. Where. Is. He?"

"Um... do you... have a black board?" To Apple's question Morgan snapped her fingers and the mirror behind her turned into a graph. "Right. The first two things that I noticed when I was reading through the Scarback's books was that they seemed to lack any sense of order, and the degree of faded ink between them. Then that means that who ever was writing it, wrote it out of order the that they encountered the creatures. Now according to what Mira stated, the books weren't written by any one tribe in particular, but rather from the primary most tribe, the one where the others take their orders..."

"Track which animals they were writing about and you get their path through my homeland." Morgan grabbed her mirror pad and pressed it against the window like mirror, spewing out the contents of what Apple quickly realized was the digital equivalent to the book she had first read inside of that village they visited during their field trip. The pages of the book lined up with a map designating the locations of where various unpleasant creatures could be found. Like a connect the dots a line formed between the pictures of monsters connecting them together in a trail through Riordan. "But how are they getting around." Then Morgan smiled as she came to a sudden realization. "Drowned rats." At first Morgan had assumed that they were just using the underground network to hide, but now she realized they were also using it to get around as well. There wasn't a single path they were taking, but rather a central point of origin that they would use to spread out, then retreat. And now that central point was flooded with water. "Flee all the sinking ships you want, I will find you."

* * *

Darling, Dexter and Daring found their own ways of passing the time on the way to the Draugr's based camp. Darling was inspecting the sword, noting how it changed sizes depending on if she grabbed it with both hands, how many muscles in her body she tensed, and she experimented with the flames coming off of the sword as well. Dexter was reading a book given to him by Mira, one that detailed various undead monsters that 'lived' in Riordan as part of it's undead army. Daring however found himself looking for something to do, five days ago he would have spent this time indulging in his egotism by pruning himself in his mirror, now he wanted as little to do with himself as possible. Understandable, when you consider what he saw his doppelganger do in the book, but alas without some major plastic surgery or some extreme self mutilation Daring would never be able to part himself of his face and memories associated with it. Instead Daring looked over Dexter's shoulder at what he was reading.

"The technical term I think is called Draco-Grims." Dexter stated as Daring caught sight of the shadowy drake like creature on the page. "A portmanu of the Riordan word for Dragon, Draco and the term Grim, referring to the mid level undead reanimated from dog's and other domesticated animals spirits."

"Spirits? Not remains?" Daring asked cocking his eye in confusion.

"Quite, although able to interact with the physical plane the Grim have no actual physical bodies." Then a thought occurred to Dexter. "I guess that is why they were able to hide in their shadows like that huh?" Undead had limitless stamina, the only reason why they would ever need mounts is if they were hauling heavy cargo or needed to go somewhere fast. "Speaking of which, I think we're here." The group was greeted by what suspiciously looked like Corvo, Raven's father. "It has been a long time since the living dressed up in my Draugr's armor. So that begs the question, what are you doing here?"

* * *

 **Author's Note** :

rmarcano321: Quantity has a Quality all of it's own. Yes, your point? Not for this story I think, but for my next one though, that's a different matter. Chapter 66.

Zwei Eis: I thought you might enjoy that. I reject that remark!

DJ: I have no plans for Nevermore and Brogan interactions. It doesn't mean that it won't happen, just that I have no plans for them. I mentioned this already but young dragons don't have the ability to talk on account of their voice box having not grown in, Brogan's only recently acquired his.

Charlie: The problem with fighting against giant monsters is the difference in power, they can't get hit by Brogan without every bone in their bodies getting crushed, with the exception of those who can take on his weight class. Does this answer your questions?

Wade: Some scars are meant to last.

Guest: Wow that's dedication. As a writer there are few things I appreciate more than a precisely written review by a dedicated reader. Your praise for me nailing the characters is pretty high when you realized I never watched a single webisode or movie, merely read the Ever After High wiki quite extensively. I agree, most of the time when reading something I have to go in ready to hate Apple rather severely for her deliberate ignorance and over whelming insistence on yes when everyone else is saying no. Either way I thank you for your high praise.


	70. Chapter 70

**Author's Note** : Getting closer to the end, check in again after the big blow out, blow outs really, there are things I wanna wrap up as we wind down. Read, Review, Favorite and Enjoy!

* * *

Chapter 70: I'll Leave It To You Fairy Queen

A drake pulled carriage arrived outside of the base and parked in front of a loading zone. The entire passenger section of the carriage was lifted off and pulled into the base by golem arms. Darling found herself wondering about this cargo hauling carriage and why it was here. For the time being though, she would have to focus her attention on the ones before them, the Draug base commander and his Draugr soldiers.

"I won't claim innocence, but I will ask how you knew?" Darling requested looking at the base commander.

" **Did you think that three foreigners wandering into my territory wearing armor with the stink of someone else's magic on them wouldn't go unnoticed?** " The Draug asked as he glared at Darling.

"We've seen that armor you're wearing before, only his name was Corvo." Dexter commented assessing the one before him up and down.

" **Are you under the impression that dropping that name will spare you my wrath?** " The Draug asked giving the impression of a eye cock.

"No, but it does make me wonder what he means to you." Dexter commented scratching at his chin.

* * *

Neverland was a separate realm similar in concept to Wonderland but different in many ways: for starters this realm was far more stable, the randomizing magics had no place here. That said, plants ruled Neverland in the same way that chaos ruled Wonderland, the jungles were thick with plants and the waters stirred with something that was rather exceptionally huge. Morgan's boat was being intercepted by a ancient looking tall ship. The ship was armed with juts off the side the size of tree trunks, magic cannons capable of great destructive power, and it was decorated with plates of armor decorated with bright inlays resembling lions, tigers, bears and crocodiles. The tall ship pulled up alongside Morgan's ship and the captain made his presence known. A aged but well taken care of maroon over coat was laced with gold trimmings and topped off with a captain's hat. A scruffy unshaven disheveled head was having it's teeth picked by a metal claw that was in place of a hand.

"Well, well, well. If it isn't Neverland's navy admiral James T. Hook." Morgan evidently was waiting for the one time pirate captain, sat backwards on a chair and looking directly at him.

"Get the stocks on her now!" The Pirate Captain snapped as his men maneuvered around Morgan and snapped a set of stocks on her, glowing runes covered wood activated seemingly activating a suppression field. "Where are they you crazy lunatic!?" Hook snapped looming over the cuffed Morgan.

"In their room, they've been getting rather cozy as of late." Morgan commented prompting Hook to go to investigate below deck.

Raven was sat in a meditative position on a bed roll, Apple was hiding behind Nevermore who was hiding behind a barrel when Hook walked down.

"Is everyone okay?" Hook asked looking around the area. Sudden Raven's eyes shot open revealing orbs glowing with power, then Raven started to shriek and the air gathered both her and blew Hook out from the little area of the ship and back on deck. "You!" Hook stumbled to his feet and pointed accusingly towards Morgan. "Explain!"

"Djinn, Ifrit and Maride." Morgan stated cryptically.

"What?" Hook asked confused with the nonsensical string of words.

"Ask your girl friend what those words mean." Morgan ordered with a roll of her eyes.

"Jaysus..." Muttering that Hook took out a mirror phone and dialed the only number on his speed dial. "Hello Titania... yeah we got her but she's got a message for you... 'Djinn, Ifrit and Maride...'" Hook pressed the phone to his chest as he turned to face Morgan. "No Da..."

"No." Morgan stated with a knowing smirk.

"... No Dao... Got it see you when we get there." Hook put his phone away and looked at Morgan with a scornful look.

"Lemme take a wild guess. You are going to take my daughter into the middle of that forest, you are going to get her exactly what she needs, and while you are doing that these guys are going to take me and my boat and they are going to drive my out to sea." Morgan stated giving a shrug of her shoulders.

"Close, we're taking her, getting her what she needs, and then we are going to stuff you in a hole somewhere until this mess you made blows over." The stocks suddenly shattered as Morgan pulled her head and hands free. "Ishmael." Hook stated in a defeated tone of voice.

"Yes sir?" The first mate replied matching his captain's defeated tone.

"Take her where she needs to go."

"Yes Sir."

"Do something about that blonde little stowaway while you're at it would you?" Morgan asked pointing over to Apple who was coming from below deck.

"Excuse me!" Apple stated taking a look around at the numerous pirates who had boarded the ship.

"Grab her and bring her on board." Hook stated prompting several of the crew men to move for Apple. "Not her! She stays here grab the one below!"

"Excuse me!" An offended looking Apple moved to intercept Hook as he went back on his ship. "Where Raven goes I'm going!"

"Hraban Konigan to you little girl!" Hook snapped looking offended. "And if someone comes aboard my ship they are one of three things: invited which you are not, crew or a stowaway, and here's a little hint on which one you want." Hook suddenly grabbed the platter that Apple and Morgan ate Boarbatusk and still had the lion's share of the beast ready to serve, but instead of eating that meat Hook chucked it into the water, where a crocodile as tall as a sky scraper jumped out of the water to eat it. "We feed stowaway's to the croc!"

"Is that right?" Apple asked cocking a brow at Hook. "So all I have to do is get invited on board?" Apple stated as she walked to the bow of the ship.

"You don't seem to understand how a invitation works little girl." Hook stated prompting his crew to laugh.

"RRRAAAWWWGGGRRR!" The croc made it's second appearance in as many minuets, poking it's head out of the water and coming up alongside Apple who petted it on it's snout. "You have two options, bring me aboard your ship, or we'll just divide it in half and I'll take one and you can take the other."

Darling and the others had been left in the cargo room while they waited for upper management to meet with them. It occurred to Darling that they had time to investigate whatever it was that they had brought in on that carriage earlier.

"Sis, are you sure this is a good idea?" Dexter asked as he watched Darling take a crowbar to the carriage. "That looks like one serious crate."

"That is kinda the reason why we want to know what's inside of it Dexter." While Darling said that she succeeded in crow baring the door off of carriage, which in turn triggered a chain reaction that caused the whole thing to come crashing down. What was revealed when it was removed though was a coffin, wrapped in chains. "Well now that's ominous." Something clicked within the coffin to which the chains all came off at once. "Well at least we know that they're not suppose to keep something inside from getting out." Darling commented as she backed away slowly.

"No but the crate was meant to keep someone from getting at whatever is inside of that thing and you broke it so I recommend that we hide." Dexter stated pulling both of his siblings away behind a corner. The last clicking sound echoed as the lid on the coffin opened revealing a bony hand underneath.

* * *

Ishmael was driving the ship back out to see, his one passenger, a insane witch who could level countries all by herself.

"Ah, so he's shown himself." Morgan commented seemingly about really nothing in particular.

"What are you talking about you mad creature?" Ishmael asked looking down at Morgan who was sitting on the deck.

"I am telling you to get off my ship before I feed yeah to the snake!" Suddenly Ishmael was sprayed by a mass of salt water as something that was very, very tall rose out of the water. "What's it gonna be?"

* * *

Hook was escorting a party consisting of Raven on Nevermore's back accompanied by Apple. Hook received a call on his phone and suddenly whipped out his mirror phone to answer it.

"...Yeah that figures." Hook stated letting out a sigh. "Alright you're going to meet up with Titania's daughter, she'll take you to the world tree so that you can get your stupid spirit and get out of our lands before the mad woman comes back and kills us all."

"Titania's daughter?" Apple quoted leading Nevermore by the rope around her neck. "Isn't that..."

"Greeting's and salutations friends!" The three girls looked up to see the familiar sight of Faybelle accompanied by two Gigan Wolves, one had the green streak's that Ramona had grown so fond of lately, but the other had a stripe of red hair that went all the way down the back.

"When did you get here!?" Apple asked as her face scrunched in scrutiny.

"Days ago, we figured that eventually Morgan would go to old friends for help with her mad schemes and as it so happened one of them is my mom. So as soon as we got the mirror network back up and running we came here to intercept her." Faybelle stated as she jumped down to the trio's level and started circling around Raven and Nevermore. "Nice magic runes on the lizard, but what have you people been doing with my friend?"

"Raven's got a Djinn and a Ifrit and a Maride in her!" Apple half shrieked fully aware of what condition her eldest friend has been in for the past several days. "No Dao? Yoinks no wonder mom put the foot down on this." Thus Faybelle turned her attention to the two giant wolves in the trees. "You two start clearing the way!" Ramona and her fellow wolf nodded their heads as they started tearing through the dense jungle like foliage blocking their path using tooth, fang and the good old huff and puff.

"What about mom and the others?" Apple asked as she cut Faybelle off. "Everyone's okay right?"

"Funny thing, right as the beast had us on the ropes he suddenly up and left. Mind you he didn't fly away, Sparrow and Duchess apparently knocked it out of the sky and made it hurt itself." Faybelle explained as she dodged foliage being torn apart by Ramona.

"Is that true?" Apple asked cocking a brow suspiciously at Faybelle.

"What are you...?"

"Faybelle has a plant knack, meaning she could do to those vines what I can do to animals. If you needed Ramona and her friend to rip those plants apart then you are not Faybelle." The two Gigan wolves turned their attention away from the plants and towards Apple and Nevermore, the dragon started growling when she realized that these weren't Raven's old friends. "Really? You three wanna pick this fight here?" The woods shifted slightly, Apple was playing on the idea that Neverland was just as horrible as Riordan when it comes to unfriendly wildlife. These three seemed to be buying it.

"Newsflash girl Neverland doesn't use animals for house defense they use-GAK!" The Faybelle impersonator was suddenly picked up by her neck by a vine that had sprouted out of the ground below her. Both of the Gigan wolves dropped like sacks of hammers, small lights with needle like blades pulled themselves out of their fur.

"The rest of that sentence is dangerous carnivorous/poisonous plants, and fairy assassins." The real Faybelle stated one hand in the air and something imaginary being held between her fingers in a pinch. "Are you okay 'Princess?'" Faybelle stated trying to make the word princess sound as insulting as possible.

"The first night we spent at the school, what were we talking about?" Apple asked not taking any chances with another impersonator.

"As I recall I was chewing you out for treating Raven as a stage prop for your little party. What I want to know is the reason why I slapped you that same night?" Faybelle asked as well.

"I was stunned stupid with the state of Raven's body and you snapped me out of it, then I went to tear up some curtains to use as a turnicate for when we thawed Raven out." Apple replied relieved that she wouldn't have to deal with anymore impostor Faybelles tonight.

"Time is short and I have an interrogation to conduct, if you need a Dao, then you three need to get to the world tree." The Faybelle turned her attention to Nevermore. "Take these two to the damn tree already the plants and Aerial's won't bother you this time." Nevermore growled in disbelief. "Do you really think I would waste time on a prank at a time like this!?" Nevermore ducked her head between Apple's leg's and soon Apple was on the Dragon's back with Raven.

After Nevermore leaped into the air Faybelle felt up her doppleganger and soon found and pulled off fang shaped pendant. A few seconds later the Faybelle impersonator's features adjusted until she took the form of a familiar formerly fish faced foe.

"Hello there thief, came here to steal another of Raven's brushes?" When Faybelle went to get Raven's and Apple's stuff from their room she found only one thing missing, Raven's hairbrush. "If you wanted something shiny, you would have stolen a plethora of Jewelry. Not that you and your hypocrtical Goblin snatching friends are interested in shiny things. And if it was a curse you were after then you'd be after Raven's blood and not her hair. So then you want something that you can only do with her hair. What is it?" Faybelle asked glaring her enemy in the eye.

"You tell me you seem so smart!" The woman being held by Faybelle's vine snapped back.

"I probably could but time is short." The vine's grip on the woman tightened up as the sound of moaning came from down the path. "Normally, I feel sorry for those who succumb to the Matanago mushroom, being reduced to a facilely of life and made to serve as cannon fodder for invaders to our lands. But for you, you who turned the offspring of my friend into a joke almost at the cost of their lives for you I will make an exception!" The people, if you could call them that, were roughly human sized beings with various kinds of fungus growing out of their bodies in odd places, most prominently growing out of their faces. "But you are different, before your brain is reduced to mush that fungus will tell me everything I want to know about what your employer wants with my friend!"

"I'll tell...!"

"Yes you will, in the agonizing minuets between your infection your death as your free will is stripped away from you I will learn everything I can about your employers!" Faybelle stated coldly.

And then the fairies former doppelganger screamed.

* * *

Nevermore took Apple and Raven to the largest tree located at the center of the forest, it's thickness and height reminded Apple about a sky scraper more than any tree she's ever seen.

"Bring her inside, lets see if we can clean up the mess my former pupil left for us." Saying that the little dwarfish looking fairies that were serving as body guard to Titania led Nevermore and Raven inside the tree.

"Is she going to be okay?" Apple asked looking concerned.

"That much depends on her." Titania replied crossing her arms and sighing. "Honestly, what has that mad woman been doing with my god daughter?"

"Mother..." Faybelle's voice suddenly echoed out of Titania's pocket. Towards that end Titania removed a small magical stone, the equivalent to a pager basically. "I've been able to extract some information from a person I took captive. It would seem that the person responsible for Nevermore's chick's spontaneous growth spurt no longer has any interest in Raven." Apple felt relieved by Faybelle's explanation to the point that she wiped the sweat off of her brow. "It would seem that as a member of a Assassin order that values honor highly, she felt compelled to complete her mission anyway."

"Then what is it that they were after?" Titania asked cocking a suspicious brow.

"Confirmation on whether or not Raven really has been de-cursed, to which they had hoped to do by examining her hair and getting a grasp on a time line of her magical quality, but it seems to be in the affirmative."

"That's good to hear." Titania stated letting out a sigh. "I was mildly concerned about the effects of using riddlish to forcibly rip out a curse from it's host. So then, what interest do they have in young Raven?"

"It would seem that it concerns Raven's up coming position as the new Queen of Riordan, they are under the impression that if all the magic in the land passes through an obscuris it could have a... negative effect on the lands." Faybelle's tone of voice sounded like the would be thief/assassin had manage to raise a fair point.

"So then that means..." At the same time, Titania had a not so relieved tone of voice.

"Yeah. They're going after Morgan." Faybelle sounded like she shared Titania's concern. "And Morgan's coming after them."

* * *

He actually looked a lot different then they had believed he would, granted the man who was hiding inside of the casket was by no means undead, healthy wasn't exactly the best description for him either, what with the sunken features of his and bald head he looked just like a skeleton, except for all the fleshy parts that is. Then the ground shook, not a earth quake it was too short, something had come down outside the base, hard.

"Come out of there! I know you're in there!" The familiar voice of a monster of world ending proportions demanded.

"Oh crud."

* * *

 **Review Section** :

rmarcano321: That they are. Raven.

Zwei Eis: True, true. But no that isn't Corvo. There is a disturbing number of similarities between them I will admit.

DJ: Jormangandr can speak but she doesn't speak any modern language, she's older then most of them. Part of the reason why Morgan was able to negotiate with her for one of her eggs was because she knows her language.

Wade: Not Corvo.

Charlie: Or Apple can convince Morgan to call off her monster.


	71. Chapter 71

**Author's Note** : Not much to say right now, Read, Review Favorite and Enjoy!

* * *

Chapter 71: Of Gods and Men

Darling, Dexter and Daring all moved themselves to the top most part of the fortress, looking through the matriculation as the skeleton like mage they saw earlier was confronted by Morgan. Dexter's blossoming reporter instincts demanded that he record the occasion with his phone, and Darling apparently had the idea to open a call with her phone and chuck it down into the bushes nearest to Morgan.

"You're a bit smaller then I'd thought you'd be, but it's definitely you." Morgan muttered to herself looking her enemy up and down with a pleased look on her features at her standing a whole foot over the other man. "So what name should I write down on your tomb stone? From what I can tell you're one of those people whose changed their names and gone north a few times over."

"I go by Robert these days." The man who looked like a skeleton said as he drilled his pinky into his ear. "You can write it right above 'the man who did the most for Riordan in the history of ever!'"

"You really?" Morgan stated with a smirk on her face. "How about 'the greatest plague the world has ever known?'"

"And what wrong's have I unleashed upon our lands in comparison to you?" The man called Robert asked as he cocked a brow in interest at Morgan. "She who habitually rains down fire and brimstone upon the heads of those that displease her?"

"Well for starters... you brought Blue Beard down on our heads!" Morgan stated her some what jovial tone having suddenly taken on a darker tone of voice.

"Ah yes, that was actually one of my finer plans." Robert admitted snickering in amusement. "A little war provocation on the enemies part, and we have justification to wipe the animals out." The three siblings faces scrunched in disgust, it wasn't hard to see where this guy's followers got the whole 'mightier than thou' spiel from.

"How did that work out for you?" Morgan asked cocking a interested brow.

"It failed, not irredeemably so but it did fail." Robert stated letting out a sigh before he continued. "I learned about the unfortunate weakness of our kind, similar to the gods that we descend from, our power comes from the mortals that believe in us, whether that is fear or whether that is love."

"Magic casters are not gods you little twat!" Morgan spat the color of blood flashing in her eyes.

"That argument looses credibility coming from you, yah do realize this yes?" Robert replied satisfied to see that he had gotten the witch mad at him. "Then again: you are 'The Worst One.'" A small boom echoed throughout the landscape as Morgan landed a punch square to the face of Robert sending him flying through the wall behind him, nearly knocking the siblings off in the process. "Oh did I strike a nerve there?" Robert seemed completely unflapped by the attack, for a man that had just gotten smacked through two feet of solid stone that is. "My my you are scary." Morgan stormed over to the pile of rubble she had made hands giving off clouds of dark magic. "Lord knows how many Obscuri there are thanks to you, all drawn in towards our homeland, their power harvested to fuel our armies, tends our fields, works our offices, a vast collection of undead servants working twenty four hours a day to maintain our homeland."

The cloud in Morgan's hand became twisted, circling around in a hundred directions at once in a spatial distortion, before shrinking, becoming smaller, the size of a baseball, looking like a hurricane contained, but a black spot like a black hole had formed at the center. Morgan took one look up, at the three teenagers on top of the fortress, and gave them one warning, silently tilting her head to her right, wisely the three chose to vacate the fortress in question.

* * *

Blondie, as crude as it might seem with everything that was going on right now, was taking advantage of the situation. Blondie felt she was justified to be frank, having opened every lock that they could find inside of the temple she decided to take a moment to forget about the crazy homicidal mad woman who had been rampaging through two in half countries and just record a view of the world from the top. Holding the camera up to the horizon, Blondie bore witness as what she could only summarize as a black hurricane of death appeared, reached the sky in a instant, before slamming back down in a huge implosion taking everything in a hundred kilometers with it into a huge dense ball all in the span of about ten minuets.

"... SPARRRRRROOOOWWWW!" Sparrow came but not because Blondie called him, he and every other living soul inside of that temple felt the ground shake with that burst of raw power and thus gathered together on top of the temple. The footage on Blondie's Mirror pad was shown to both Sparrow, Mira and Weiss to mixed results.

"She's at it again." Sparrow stated with a sigh.

"Is Apple down there?" Weiss demanded in a forceful tone of voice.

"Unknown, impossible to tell at this distance." Mira checked her messages again.

"Faybelle stated that she would inform us of when Raven and the others arrived in Neverland. Since our current state of affairs doesn't cover inter realm communications she has to leave before she can do that." As soon as they got the message from Apple about the Earth temple Faybelle piped up with a alternate location on where the Dao could be summoned, that of her home realm of Neverland more specifically it's world tree. Failing that, Faybelle would ask her mother make an alliance with Ever After with the mutual goal of halting Morgan's rampage.

"Well how can we find out!?" Weiss snapped letting her patience slip.

"Hmm." Sparrow looked around him before being struck with an idea. "Mira, did we bring Melody along?"

* * *

Inside of Neverland, inside of it's tree whose roots spanned an entire realm, Raven had met with a entity alien to her, though not as of late. After all lately Raven as had three other beings of the astral plain inside of her body, and this one was to be no exception. The Dao gave the impression of a huge wall of stone, cracks in it had formed a mouth by which to speak and a set of eyes by which to see.

"My my, I was wondering when you'd show yourself." The Dao stated, it's tone that of someone who had become bored. "Twenty years I've waited for the new Queen of Riordan to make herself known, and in place of a grown woman I find a child."

"Yeah, no that wasn't me you were waiting for it was my mom. She's got a... condition." Raven stated with a fair amount of reluctance.

"And you don't?" Those cracks traced the area behind Raven to the three spirits the young witch queen had collected already. "For starters it looks as if you're having trouble telling left from right."

"Yeah... it's been rough without you to help with these three." Raven stated prompting the ever barely clothed Djinn to tug on her cheek.

"I wouldn't be so uncooperative if someone hadn't stuffed me into a bottle and forgot I was there!" The Djinn stated in bitter tones releasing on pulled cheek with a loud smack.

"Continuing on." The Dao gave the impression of sniffing Raven. "Hmm. Curious. Curious and Dangerous. Are you sure you didn't inherit your mother's 'condition?' Or did you merely discover the means to give it to someone else?" Another sniff from the block of stone. "Oh yes, dark magic, dark and powerful, hatred ever lasting and yet... faded, reduced, and a touch of the madness of the Great Dragon."

"You can smell the Jabberwocky on me?" Raven asked looking shocked.

"Contrary to what you seem to think, I as the one who is meant to bond with you first also has the responsibility to test your worthiness as Queen of Riordan... as you are... hmm..." The Dao seemed to think about it for a moment. "Good strength of character, ambitious, Not a bad mind either, and a strong bond with the plants and the earth. A few dangerous elements yes, but what is Riordan without it's hazards? Hmm... I accept." The wall collapsed, out stepped another of Raven's doppelgangers, this one brown skinned, leaves, vines, berries and other forms of vegetation came together and formed a court jester's outfit.

"Why do all of you insist on these ridiculous outfits?" Raven asked her face twisted in confusion.

"We gotta have fun with you some how." The Dao stated shrugging it's shoulders.

Raven was able to pull herself out of the ground, having been buried up to her neck, and stepped outside to discover her clothes caked with dirt.

"Lovely." Apparently as a benefit of her newly acquired earth friend all the dirt was instantly shaken out of Raven's clothes. "Apple!? Nevermore!?" Raven called out, Raven noticed the air moving around her and looked up to see Apple on top of Nevermore carrying a log burnt by being struck by lightning.

"I'm told that you would be needing these." Apple dropped the log and the carving Tools that Morgan had been working on for Raven and she caught them.

"Controlling the four spirits requires the use of a director, a tool to control and direct them to your whims, in other words a magic staff." Titania explained, having just appeared from above. "Your mother's at it again, she just used a magic compression trick I taught her to put a crater big enough to pot the world tree in your home land."

"Is this really the time to be making wands? Can't we just borrow someone else's?" Apple asked with a incredulous look on her face.

"Yes, Raven requires a wand tailored to her own needs and she is the only one who can make it, now turn around you." Titania produced a pair of scissors while directing her attention to Raven. "Time for a hair cut."

* * *

Darling had one thought in her mind. How the heck did they survive that? Every tree, rock, undead and god mother knows what else for a hundred miles had just been sucked up and crunched into a ball. Everything except for four people that is.

"Under estimating me is a oft fatal mistake." Morgan stated in a dismissive tone of voice while she looked at her handiwork. "I wouldn't recommend getting into the habit of it." Saying that, Morgan picked the three Charmings up with her magic, her power in the armor reacting to her will. "I would've thought you would have learned your lesson from the last time."

"Funny thing is, I did!" Darling pulled out a shield glowing with purifying power, the link between Morgan and the armor had been severed, Darling hit the ground running and used every muscle in her body to swing that draconian sword down on Morgan, causing it to grow to a huge size even as she used both hands to intercept it and it pushed away at her. Then Darling followed by slamming that huge sword with the witch hanging off of it into the super hardened stone. Morgan punched the blade away from her, Darling turned the momentum into another swing down on top of Morgan who rolled out of the way in time. "You aren't the only monster in the world, Faybelle skinned one of the ones you sent after us, and then the Queen's dwarf's made them into armor and a weapon just to take you down!" Darling snarled pointing her blade accusingly towards Morgan.

Suddenly, the top of the stone ball was blown off, the chunks went for several meters and from the top climbed out Robert, intact bar some stone dust that he brushed off of himself.

"I believe this situation is known as the enemy of my enemy." Morgan commented cocking a brow at Darling.

"No." Darling stated simply and without compromise. "You cursed Wonderland, sicced the undead on us, cursed Ever After and then sicced dragons on us."

"What about my enemy?" Morgan asked pointing to Robert.

"Again no, he persecutes his own kind to mass produced undead magic generators, started a war for his own amusement, not to mention he's responsible for you." Darling stated emphasizing the last point by pointing the sword at Morgan.

"So, not with me and not against me." Morgan stated cocking a suspicious eye. "Eh I can work with that." Morgan stomped the ground and shot the remaining sphere of stone high into the sky, out of Darling's reach.

"Jerk." Darling stated sourly.

Now that he had some room to work with Robert spread his arms and the mass of junk he was standing on burst apart.

"Sorry, but Dirty work is not under the purview of upper management." Saying that, Robert spread his arms and the undead that were caught up in that destructive burst earlier emerged carrying their choice of weapons wreathed in cursed shadow.

"Oh crud-" Morgan was suddenly cut off as several Undead came at her, stabbing her through her abdomen with several swords and promptly falling back to earth with her pinning her to the ground in the process.

The undead worked in tandem to try and keep Morgan down, but they themselves were quickly cut down by Daring and Dexter who had coated their blades in a health potion oil. Morgan quickly leap to her feet only to find herself skewered by Darling's sword, again grown to ludicrous heights, and pole vaulted into a hammer slam on the other side of the the crater before the sword shrunk back down at the side of a panting Darling.

"You Alright sis?" Dexter asked leaning down to Darling's side.

"I'm fine." Darling ripped the cork off of a bottle of green liquid with her teeth and downed it's contents recovering her stamina quickly. "Still, I'd like to get a few shots in on that bald freak." Darling glared hatefully at the mage surrounded by a field of floating detritus and undead guards. "But as long as he's got that mojo working for him he's not coming down here. We need a way to get up to him." Suddenly the ground shook as a huge boom of sound like a horn being blown echoed from the nearby mountain range. "That is not helping my concentration!"

* * *

At the top of the mountain, a feat of ritual magics had taken place, Mira used her skills as a druid to shape a huge horn out of stone, and Melody used her sound manipulation powers to amplify the sound produced by that horn, which was being blown by Weiss who was effectively calling every animal in the countryside to her side. Through that same horn, they were given one order.

" _Find my daughter!_ " Rung in the ear's of every manner bird, beast, reptile and insect in range. Though they did not know what their target looked like there is no way that they would not recognize a person who had the same knack as the one who called to them.

* * *

"What the heck is going on here!?" Daring shouted as he witnessed the various monsters flood into the area.

"I don't know..." Darling saw a Stymphalian dive bomb them, doing a sweep over the area. "But I can work with it!" Darling used her brother as a spring board and jumped into the air and grabbed onto the bird by his talons. No sooner had the beast dived then had it started rising into the air again, redirecting the momentum from the fall to climb back into the air. But on her way the beast skimmed the ring of debris that Robert had gathered around him, and Darling was quick to jump ship.

"...Our sister has gone insane." Dexter commented prompting Daring to nod his head.

Darling wasted no time, slamming her blade into the first enemy within reach.

"You guys are in my way!" Darling knocked the Draugr's off of the rings of stone and went straight for Robert, using her sword to deliver a home run swing to fling debris at the head of Robert.

* * *

A stymphalian landed behind Duchess and warbled into her ear.

"Apple isn't down there, the mad woman didn't bring her with her, but there are three teenagers in undead armor down there." Duchess reported scratching her newly acquire associate under his beak.

"That was Faybelle." Mira stated putting her phone down. "Apple, Raven and Nevermore are safe in Neverland with Titania."

That was all that Weiss needed as she changed the orders being giving to her newly acquired servants.

* * *

Darling fell several feet out of the air with her sword run through Robert and slammed him down and pinned him to the ground, and followed that up with landing several punches directly to the wizard's face. Perhaps it was the force from her blows, but Darling didn't even notice the ground starting to shake. Darling saw it's teeth first, like a jagged makeshift cage that had her trapped in a instant, then she felt the ground shift as gravity conspired against her to bounce her against her would be bars. Feeling the ground collapse beneath her Darling took out her boot knife and stabbed the side of the beast's mouth before she fell into the beast's gullet. The monster in question howled in pain before it chucked her through the air and crashed her into the nearby forest. The Wyrm wailed like a giant tube man before Darling's sword went through his abdomen and Robert came walking out carrying the blade in question.

"Normally, I consider myself a very polite individual, as it stands though, you three just covered me in Wyrm dung, so I'm going to have to be-" Robert was cut off suddenly by Morgan crashing into him from up high above. Robert, whom it must be noted should have just had every bone in his body broken but didn't, ran Morgan through her abdomen with the blade and pushed her off of him. "Well that was pointless." Indeed, Robert was perfectly fine, even the Wyrm Manure that his body should be covered in was removed leaving him perfectly intact. "Here we are, two mages powered by limitless magic with the same bag of tricks up our sleeve. So are you going to stop this, or are we just going to keep dumping stupid amounts of violence on one another?"

"You don't know me very well do you?" A frustrated Morgan ripped the blade out of her abdomen and threw it into the forest. "I have a ludicrous capacity for dumping violence upon those that I hate!" Saying that, Morgan punched the ground and covered both of her fists in cursed stone.

"If you insist." Robert sighed while he formed several layers of magic circles in front of him. "I should probably start taking you seriously now." Suddenly, a huge white mass crashed down on the wizard from up high above producing a smell like urine as acids ate away at his flesh and clothing. "Well that's disgusting."

Robert looked up into the air to see several giant birds, Stymphalians, Thunder Birds and Phoenix's had joined in on the all out assault. Looking down Robert saw the various undead that he was calling to his position being mauled by a huge variety of different kinds of animals, Fiends, Basilisks, Dragons of all kinds. This confused Robert greatly, there was a unspoken alliance with the monsters of Riordan, the undead don't taste very good so they just left them alone up until now, likewise with the beasts unable to harm the citizenry the undead had no reason to strike at them either.

"What the...?" Then Morgan slammed her fist into the face of Robert breaking his face in the process.

"So now the animals and the undead are tearing at each other." Dexter observed watching a Fiend rip one of the soldiers apart.

"That would seem to be the case." Daring noted watching a Draugr getting blown up by a fire ball from one of the dragons.

"I think you guys are missing the obvious here." Darling stated coming out of the woods and pulling her sword out of a tree. "Remember my trip to Wonderland?" The one in which Darling observed that the curse over Wonderland was little more than a ruse to dump people Morgan wanted out of the way for a few years. "If Morgan is here, then the action is happening somewhere else!" Darling stated watching as Robert unleashed a super concentrated beam of magical power on Morgan pushing her back several feet in the process.

"But this little dog and pony.." Dexter cringed when he saw a Fiend and a Draugr both wail in pain as they gruesomely attacked one another. "... Undead Soldier and giant horrible monster show isn't for our benefit right?" Dexter asked cocking a eye brow suspiciously. "It's for him." Robert followed up the earlier strike by producing a huge number of fire lances and raining them down on Morgan. "Then where did he come from?"

* * *

 **Review Section** :

rmarcano321: That they do. Aside from my Overlords fic, none I'm afraid.

DJ: Pretty Much. You may recall a little while ago that Nevermore's newly born offspring were fed a growth potion that caused them to go mad with hunger and acquire a dangerously thin frame.

Zwei Eis: To be fair the Neverland Pirates didn't know who Apple is or what the implications of that knowledge means. Good to know.

Wade: Pretty Much. You'd be scared to learn what people are willing to do in the name of protecting family and homeland.

Charlie: Indeed. Well... if you could make giant monsters sit roll over and beg you would too.


	72. Chapter 72

**Author's Note** : Nothing to say right now. Read, Review, Favorite and Enjoy!

* * *

Chapter 72: Your Wand is Ready, Evil Queen

A lone figure descended down a abandoned shaft on a rope, no light shone in this dark and abandoned place and he needed none to see. Massive spires of rock hung from the ceiling, hollowed out and built upon into some sort of sinister laboratory. Clouds of darkness swirled around the spike hanging from the ceiling as if the entire thing wasn't deep underground but instead towered into the sky, a illusion that was furthered by the shimmering mass of liquid that had recently flooded the bottom of the cavern. But he was underground, and Corvo knew exactly what those clouds were. To be more accurate, there was no way that he couldn't know what those clouds were, after all Corvo could never forget the eternal tug and pull of a Obscuris on his every fibre of his being. By his sword, when the sun set on the world above today these wretched creatures miserable existences would be ended.

* * *

Raven was using a large knife to remove a large length of wood from what she had learned was a branch from the world tree, blown off by a series of lightning strikes as a blessing from the gods. Faybelle in the mean time was using some bandages and a healing poultice to treat Apple's leg injury.

"The mad woman busted your leg?" Faybelle asked an incredulous look of disbelief on her features.

"Some how I find Nevermore welding the bones in my foot back together more surprising then that." Apple commented dryly even as Faybelle corrected the position of the bones in Apple's foot.

"If you believe that then you haven't observed too many dragons in action." Faybelle stated finishing the bandage work she was going on Apple's foot. "When they do suffer egregious injury, usually when they're fighting each other, rather then letting nature take it's course they make use of their natural affinity for the elements to weld broken bones and seal wounds close."

"As if dragons weren't terrifying enough on their own." Apple commented shaking her head.

"Yeah then Morgan goes ahead an plasters that one with buffing spells." Faybelle stated nudging her head to Nevermore and the magic symbols that covered her skin.

"Do you know what they do?" Apple asked looking concerned.

"Oh buffing spells, enhance speed, strength, durability, fire breath..." Faybelle looked up into the air as she mused over the subject for a few moments. "Basically take 'dragon' and add 'more'."

"Speaking of which, but what is that?" Faybelle had brought a laundry bag with her, inside of it's clear plastic Apple was able to make out something that vaguely looked like a mages robe.

"A little something I made out of... Grimhilde."

"You made what out of who?" Apple asked her face contorted in horror.

"Before you freak out on me, very little of Grimhilde's actual body was left at that point in time, everything else was just random junk that was just lying around at the time. Sorta like's Darling's armor that we made outta Blue Beard's bits." Faybelle stated her tone of voice that of someone who knew what was going to happen if she stopped talking.

"You made what out of who?" Apple growled Faybelle having instead the opposite effect that she had intended, in all honesty she didn't even know what she should have been more mad about, skinning Grimhilde or using Blue Beard.

"There's just no pleasing you right now is there?" Faybelle sighed having given up on this conversation with Apple.

"Can I take a break now?" Raven asked scrunching up her hands as they felt to be rather sore right now.

"That depends: are you satisfied with the shape of your wand?" Titania asked noting the rod like shape in Raven's hands.

Traditionally speaking, while it was the apprentice mage who did most of the wand carving, it was the responsibility of the master to finish it as a sort of ceremonial handing of the baton. Even if the apprentice decided on carving a new wand later the ceremony was still very important.

"Yeah this'll work, but can I pick out some of the finishing materials?" Raven asked finger in the air.

The selected items were chosen from a mix of what they had on hand, Nevermore tore out one of her molars which was promptly jammed into one end of the staff, a grip was fashioned out of Raven's hair in order to facilitate a connection between the staff and witch, the final touch was a stone provided by the undersea kingdom, light as a feather and soaked in the moon's rays for one thousand years, a excellent high capacity battery. Other runes were added in or there to strengthen the end result though Titania still felt the end product unfinished.

"I suppose now that it's been magically reinforced I'll make for a good bludgeon. Still, I would have put a more effective weapon on the end of it considering the circumstances." Titania stated letting out a disappointed sigh.

"It's not a weapon, I refuse to go about prancing around like a warlord!" Raven snapped and rightfully so in her opinion. "It is a tool that I will use to end this madness before it has the chance to go on any longer!" Standing up Raven began making her way to Nevermore, only for Faybelle to literally shove the mages robes she had prepared for her into her arms.

"Wear the damn robe we made for you so that you'll come back alive kay?" Faybelle did not sound like she was asking a question.

It took Raven a few minuets to get dress, though the rope was originally made from the sod and grass that had been peeled off the landscape of the magical forest it's plant like fibres had been expertly broken down and re-knit tightly into strands resembling spider silk, those strands were then further processed into tightly knitted together into a tight weave fabric with high damage and impact absorbing properties resembling kevlar, these kevlar sheets were finally layered on one another and cross stitched into what would normally considered gambison for metal armor and as the last touch auto fitted to Raven's size via the overly convenient power of Nevermore's size shifting fangs. The iron wood hands and legs of Grimhilde were hollowed out and remade into convenient gauntlets and greaves for Raven's use and the crown of branches decorated with amber shards pride from Grimhilde's skull were perfectly fitted over Raven's head.

"Well..." Raven twirled around on the spot wearing her new combination robe and armor. "How do I look?"

"Like a Queen!" Even Apple was excitedly jumping up and down at Raven's new look. "Come on we need to go..." Apple caught the sad look on Raven's face as she was about to finish that sentence. "...Let's just go."

Apple and Raven Climbed onto Nevermore's back while Faybelle rode her halberd like a broom stick. The three of them flew until they reached Neverland's boarder, where the ancient ship of Captain Hook was floating in the air on clouds of golden dust.

"So the fairies are bringing their forces to bare?" Apple asked cocking a suspicious brow.

"Against who?" Raven asked cocking a suspicious brow back.

"Well they like your home land more than mine right?" Apple asked shrugging dismissively.

Either way she didn't seemed to concerned about the invasion of razor sharp butterflies.

"True, but Mom is going to hurt herself if she keeps going like this. Before breaking out of that Mirror she hadn't eaten anything in years and I doubt that she's sleeping either, the power of that Obscuris might be unlimited but I wonder at what cost." Raven stated a dark look in her eyes. "Somehow I doubt Mom has gotten rid of all the consequences of being host to a obscuris just by ingesting zombie shrooms and spider venom with a glamour charm on top."

"You think her life is in danger?" Apple asked legitimately looking concerned.

"I'm just worried about her. It's nothing new in all honesty."

* * *

Riordan telescopes, normally given to navy admirals, were mounted on top of dwarfen rifles, which were in turn mounted on makeshift stands of dirt and stone, and held in the hands of dwarfs that had been practicing their aims for centuries with far less accurate weapons. The ammunition rivaled that of the weapon themselves, goblin forged balls with a auto tracking rune installed, courtesy of Sindri, and infused with the massive anti-curse power of the Purificus. With both Morgan and Robert in their sights that just left one question.

"Are you sure this will work?" The Dwarfen sniper asked Mira cocking his brow suspiciously. "Yah do know that we ain't aiming ta wound her right, if we gotta chance to kill her then we gonna kill her."

"Morgan does indeed have a weakness, one could say it's only weakness and that's her daughter. And these balls have her daughter's power in them." Mira stated as she looked down at the Horizon. "It will work."

"Or it'll piss her off even more when she learns that we're using her little girl against her." The Dwarf counter letting out a sigh of exasperation.

"Then perhaps you should shoot the other one first?" Mira commented shrugging her shoulders.

"...You had this planned out didn't you?" The dwarf asked glaring at Mira.

"I've learned that people tend to think us more intelligent then we are, either that or that we can see the future." Mira stated with a shrug of her shoulders.

"Ugh... New target lads, shoot the other guy." The leader of the squad of dwarf snipers stated as he readjusted his aim.

"Can't get a clean shot sir, someone's in the way." Mira took one of the guns and peered through it down at the battle field, Darling had gotten into a fist fight with Robert, to be more accurate though it was more like Darling was just one sidely beating on the man's face. Not that the wizard in question really took notice, what with the familiar way that his features just popped back into place after being caved in.

"Oh come on! Does... every... one... in... this... butt crack... of... a.. country... know... how... to... DO THAT!?" Darling screamed in frustration as she wailed away on Robert's face.

"Well..." Robert grabbed hold of Darling's hand and stopped her from interrupting him anymore. "It's not a common ability, it can be quite painful you see, and it requires absurd amounts of power to do. Plus unlike that lady over there I'm not a spring chicken." Robert explained gesturing to Morgan who had a large stone of some kind hoisted above her head and ready to crush Robert. "Why don't you go play with her for a while?"

Saying that Robert picked Darling up and chucked her at Morgan, at the same time a dozen golf ball sized chunks of glowing metal were shot at Robert all at the same time, but more important then the holes the balls left behind was the fact that they were burning with the purifying power of the Purificus.

"GAHAHA!" Robert screamed as collapsed to the ground.

"Never seen that before." Morgan commented cocking a confused brow. Morgan produced several layers of octagon shaped magic circles in the direction where those balls came from, as if that was a cue several more of those goblin forged balls slammed into the barrier. Rather then harmlessly bounce off like they had their momentum halted, the balls continued to spin and grind against the magic of the barrier. "I've seen that enchantment before." Morgan commented in a angry growl.

After all, you never forget the first time that someone tries to kill you. So Morgan took the liberty of simply waving her hand over the balls casting the counter enchantment that her mother devised after that damned spear. After Morgan cast the counter curse she turned her attention back to the weakened Robert, not realizing that her counter curse had crackled like fireworks upon coming into contact with the balls, or the fact that now that her concentration was away from the barrier that it was now burning away. Morgan was surprised to hear her barrier shatter, though she realized that she had bigger problems to worry about when she received a overwhelming burning pain in her arm.

"RAGH!" Morgan made a sound like a wild animal getting burned and glared down at where she was hit, to her surprise she saw her arm lying on the ground next to her feet. "What the...?" Then Morgan was hit by a hail storm of little balls of purifying power.

* * *

"What did you guys do to the school?" Raven asked looking at the ruins of what was a school a few days ago.

"It's probably overdue whatever it was." Apple stated recalling all of the lies that the school represented.

When the three girls arrived back in Ever After they choose to use a mirror that they were familiar with, the transport mirror in Bookend. Aside from familiarity though, there was another reason for this as the girls noted when they landed next to a magical well, one of the only things still left standing after Morgan cursed the whole area and the school collapsed.

"Well, well, well. If it ain't the princesses of monsters, animals, fairies and Dragons." Kitty appeared bit by bit, her mouth first, her pink stripes, her purple highlights, just like the Cheshire Cat of old. "Now why are you skulking about our well? You want one of two things: Here's a hint." Kitty dropped a bucket full of water in front of the girls. The moment that everyone got out of the quantum bungaloo all the Wonderlanders jumped down the well into Wonderland.

"We came here to ask for Wonderland's help." Raven stated in a tired tone of voice.

"No." Kitty stated in a tone of voice that indicated this was not a matter to compromise on.

"Tell Lizzie that she'll get to send the whole Wonderland army after Mom." Raven stated letting out a sigh.

"Oh so then does that mean that we're going to draw and quarter her?" Kitty asked and smirked knowingly when she noticed Raven not replying. "That's what I thought. Look Raven dear it's nothing personal but neither Lizzie or her Mom isn't going to have anything to do with anything that's gonna interfere with getting their revenge on the batty old witch."

"Then I suggest you hurry." Apple raised her Mirror phone, it seemed that she started a video chat with Darling, not that that is who was on her back being incinerated with purifying flames. "Because by the looks of things, that ship is sailing." Apple stated indicating the mad woman who was currently consumed in a ball of purifying flames.

* * *

 **Review Section** :

rmarcano321: That he is. I as a rule like undead monsters.

DJ: Easy mistake to make. Thank you. Waiting yes, but that still doesn't change the fact that they didn't know how to contact the damnable thing, nor for that matter that anyone of the others would care nearly as much.

Zwei Eis: Thank you for saying so.

Charlie: Robert is simply the name that suits his interests the best at the moment, the same as calling himself Rothbart made him sound like some incomprehensible wizard and Loki some kind of all powerful god. Mm Hm. Everything's coming together now. Hope I don't let you down.

Wade: Thank you for Saying so.


	73. Chapter 73

**Author's Note** : So this story is nearing the end now, maybe six or seven chapters left, maybe less. I bring this up because with the upcoming holidays, and the expiration date on my vacation time, I'll be taking some time off of work and using that time to get some new stories out featuring some new ideas that I've been working on and I'd like the opinion of you guys to help me choose one. So Read, Review, Favorite and Enjoy!

* * *

Chapter 73: Battle of the Six Armies

The dwarfs continuously pelted Morgan with balls of purifying power, as if each one represented their fears of the one called the Dark Lord of the Demon Eyes that they were now firing back at her with great impunity. Not only that, but the balls that they had already fired were circling around her, constantly striking her, tearing flesh from bone with a burning destructive passion. It was thought miraculous that she had even survived that. However Mira understood what was going on here, it simply came down to a difference in power. Raven's Purificus and Morgan's Obscuris were both cut from the same cloth, to put it another way they were equal in power, but the power that was originated from Raven was being skimmed off and stuffed into those iron balls was not. Far from it. And yet why was Morgan struggling so against those balls, Mira believes that she already spoke the answer. Morgan's only weakness is Raven, sensing the power of Raven on instinct she goes out of her way to avoid doing her harm, hence she had yet to strike back at those balls. Even so, as long as those things only hurt her and not kill her, then she would eventually make a decision on whether or not she wanted to continuously suffer through those blows and figure out a way of counter acting them. At that time, Mira felt a rushing past her ears. Turning around, Mira saw a hole that had formed in the section of mountain behind her that was formed from something with great force being chucked at the mountain.

"It would seem that I might have jinxed it a little." Like that Morgan continuously grabbed hold of those balls of purifying power and chucked them at the biggest target that she could find, namely the mountain. The one that nearly took Mira's ear off was about as close as they got to anyone so that was of some comfort.

"It would seem that our strategy has failed us." Mira stated a almost disappointed tone in her voice.

"So do we retreat or do we keep hitting her while she's down?" One dwarf asked looking at Mira suspiciously.

"Your own Queen looks quite exhausted too." Mira noted realizing that Weiss was exhausted and her throat sore from constant screaming to draw in the monsters that they sicced on Morgan and Robert. "Retreat seems to be our only option." As Mira explained that, a familiar screaming had started up again. Mira turned around to explain to Weiss that there was no need for her to continue screaming only to see that she wasn't. Instead Mira looked to where Weiss had glued her eyes to the sky and saw that something had appeared, a purple point had appeared in the sky and seemed to be tearing open a rift in the sky revealing rainbow colors. "What the...?"

* * *

Now that they were in the air space where the battle was taking place, Raven and Apple acted. Raven used her staff and newly acquired Maride to gather together all of the water particles in the air and formed a portal out of them, Apple was using her own knack to call over the beasts on the other side. Jabberwocky's, Bandersnatch, Mock Turtles, every horrific twisted abomination that Wonderland was known and feared for was spilling through the portal. Not just it's monsters though, falling from the sky at an enormous pace was several dozen figures in red white and black, knights mounted on giant stone horse heads, double shield barriers that looked like they were carrying chunks of towers along with them, mages carrying with them bishops staffs, rank and file troops using a simple double sword combo, and finally royalty like figures that looked like a combination of the shield bearers, head riders and staff carriers: Looking Glass Land's chess pieces armies. Not just Looking Glass land, troops parachuted down carrying spade tipped spears, heart shaped ax's, massive war clubs and diamond shape sword and shield combination: Wonderland's card soldier army as well. But the armies continued to come even as Wonderland and Looking Glass Land clashed with the already ragged undead, for high above the battlefield Hook's ship that was glowing gold with fairy dust disgorged it's payload as thousands of fairies were disgorged and went to work on the army below.

* * *

"...Wonderlanders, Fairies, undead, Monsters, Dwarfs..." Sparrow counted down becoming increasingly disturbed as he went along.

Raven somehow grew that staff she was holding to a ridiculous size and slammed the butt of it into the middle of that massive crater. Perhaps the earth was just thin from the explosion, or perhaps it was the result of Raven's magic, or perhaps it was something pushing in from below. That last one seemed more likely than most as water from below seemed to actively reach up and grab Morgan, Mer people spilling out of the water spear against the incoming enemy armies.

"And now Mer people. Did I miss anything? Because I don't know how this day can get any crazier!" Sparrow shouted pulling his hair.

"I can ask Faybelle if she has some magic beans that we can use to reach giant country." Mira stated glaring at Sparrow balefully, with their luck it was not wise to tempt fate.

"...Please don't." Sparrow stated legitimately fearful. "I'm going to be having nightmare's about this day for years to come."

Suddenly, Brogan came charging out of the woods, having apparently decided to stay out to lick his wounds, with his mistress in danger there was no way that he would just stand idly by, and hence reached into the water where the mer people were trying to use healing magic on Morgan to put her back together and grabbed her.

"Hang on!" Brogan shouted while he let Morgan hold onto him via his last remaining horn.

"Ugh! What are they doing!?" Morgan shouted glaring down at the mer people still in the water.

"I could ask the same of you? What is with that appearance!?" Brogan growled glaring at Morgan out of the corner of his eyes.

"I don't know. I let my guard down because it reminded me of Raven's magic." Morgan stated looking down at what was left of her hand and saw that most of her flesh had been burnt off revealing bone tips that were suppose to be hidden under her flesh. "Whatever it was it burnt up that guy's host body too, if the fish people aren't with him then we need to get back to Corvo fast."

"In your condition mistress?" Brogan asked sounding suspicious. "It feels like everyone I ever pissed off is after us right now: we should consider this our last and best chance to get back at that guy." Saying that Morgan and Brogan's conversation was interrupted as Brogan was tackled over by a Jabberwocky which now had him pinned down and was growling menacingly.

"Hello Darling."

The Six armies seemed to have decided to hang back, the Mer people, with Morgan seemingly out of their reach, had decided to retreat while the dwarfs remained on the mountain, thus a full blown Melee had broken out between the undead and the two armies of Wonderland and Looking Glass land while the fairies took full advantage of their smaller size to weave through the undead and get their shots in tearing off armor and leaving holes behind. The Bishops were casting healing magic in the mean time, not on their own people but rather on those of the undead troops causing their bodies to fall apart.

"I trust you've been doing well." The apparent leader of this army made her presence known.

After everyone escaped from the Quantum bungaloo and was confirmed safe the White Queen went down the Wonderland Well to convince her people and neighbors to come over and give a hand, Darling had guessed she was successful.

"Even if you don't plan on joining our army I want you to have this." The White Queen held up a pawn piece straight out of a regular game of chess and shoved it into Darling's chess plate which it disappeared into.

"What was that?" Darling asked searching her chest for the mysterious piece that had up and vanished. "The power of Looking Glass Land's army is 'promotion' similar to chess. Pawns in enemy territory are able to change their abilities to that of one of four higher classes: The brutish Rooks, agile Knights, magical Bishops and the all rounders the Queen." Then the White Queen directing Darling's attention to the army of Bishops, Rooks, Knights and Queens but perhaps not so mysteriously the pawns were absent as if having disappeared. "We are in enemy territory." Receiving that last hint Darling's face lit up in a predatory smile.

"QUEEN!" Letting out that shout with her arms set off to the side, Darling's body exploded in light and her armor underwent a transformation. The armor became denser heavier, yet also more stream line, the gambison underneath grew out until the tails of a coat had appeared and decoration had appeared on Darling's armor like the machiculations on a castle wall. Not only the armor, the round shield that only covered most of Darling's upper body grew into a tower shield and developed a jeweled point at the top, the blade that originally had a crude appearance changed it's appearance into a mighty chopper that ended in a spear tip point with a jewel in the end of it.

"Huu. Naive." The White Queen could only shake her head in disappointment.

"What? What did I do?" Darling asked looking at the White Queen with a puzzled expression. "I don't have the time to explain it."

The White Queen stated turning her attention to the two warring dragons. Since some time ago Brogan had got into a breath contest with the Jabberwocky, which he seemed to win when the result of their colliding powers slammed into the head of the Jabberwocky freezing it over. Brogan wrapped his tail around the body of his opponent and stabbed it into the back of the Jabberwocky's head and used that to pull it off of him. Using that same tail Brogan slammed down on the armies from another realm and swept them off to the side as he got back up.

"Card guard! Five Aces now!" Immediately, the four cards designated as ace of spades, hearts, clubs and diamonds along with a fifth individual dressed as a court jester moved into formation. That jester worked some magic and the clown like symbol on her face changed into that of a black A and a spear appeared in her hands. Suddenly the five individuals present all glowed with magical power before firing a concentrated beam of energy into the face of Brogan who stumbled backwards.

"Uhhh..."

"Poker rules." The White Queen explained as if that explained everything, which for Darling it seemed to work out nicely. "Rooks! Get Back into formation! Protect the cards until they recharge!" At once the Rooks moved out and stacked their shields on top of one another in front of Brogan. But the dragon had no interest in fighting, as it turned tail and ran back into the forest fleeing for both his life and that of his mistress.

"Oh no you don't!" Darling dashed forward with dramatically enhanced speed, her hair was sent flying and the time stopping effect was amplified, using newly enhanced strength Darling swung her sword aiming to tear the newly enhanced blade through the frozen dragon's side.

"AUGH!"

Those hardened scales and impact absorbing muscles couldn't completely nullify the strength behind that blade and several of Brogan's ribs were cracked. However the confused dragon was suddenly lifted into the air by golden sparkles of the fairies as if trying to immobilize him.

"Oh come on!" Darling once again cursed her inability to fly.

"Let! US! GO!" The dragon let loose with another blast of flame incinerating what fairies didn't dodge his hot flames.

As if taking advantage of the immobile dragon Darling's blade grew to a huge size and slammed into the dragon's midsection.

"GET DOWN HERE!" Darling slammed her blade and the dragon on the end of it into the ground. Not only that but she began charging with both blade and dragon as if trying to run the first through the latter. Instead however something else happened, Brogan, who was still vastly stronger than Darling, grabbed hold of that blade causing it to grow in size and picking Darling up off of the ground.

"You wanna fly so badly!?" The dragon planted his feet in the ground and twisted his hips. "THEN FLY!" Screaming that, Brogan chucked the sword through the air causing it to spin like a helicopter's blade which only made it go even higher into the air.

"Nevermore!" Raven commanded prompting her draconic mount to chase off into the air after Darling. The momentum from the swing was so great that Darling was flung off, luckily the impeccable flight skills of Nevermore caught her anyway.

"Darling are you okay!?" Apple asked looking down at Darling who looked quite sore.

"...I'll manage somehow." Darling growled through gritted teeth. "So nice of you three to join with the party."

"We were a little busy." Raven replied as Nevermore used used her speed boost magic to catch up with that rapidly shrinking sword.

"I can see that. That staff good for anything?" Darling asked as she climbed onto the dragon's back.

"'That staff good for anything?'" Raven scoffed as if Darling just told a joke. "Well it can do this for example."

Brogan and his Mistress was being pelted by dwarven fire again now that they had moved closer in range to those little beards. However they were suddenly interrupted when the mountain behind them opened up and formed hands and shackles to bind the dragon and suck him inside.

"Did that do it?" Apple asked eyes hopeful. The shots that had been Chasing after Morgan followed her inside. They were promptly chucked back outside again and lodged into the stone.

"I'm gonna say... no." Raven commented as she witnessed cracks form in the stone from something inside trying to twist it apart.

Finally the stone burst open. Brogan, badly wounded, slumped onto one of his front legs as he limped out. And Morgan, Morgan hadn't even been slowed down yet. Curse stone assembled itself into most of a leg for her to lean on, and entire arm to counter her balance, most of another arm that held a rotating mass of pitch black hatred inside. The others weren't backing down either. The Rooks assembled another wall out of their shields, the cards bunched together in groups consisting of one ace, ten, jack, queen and King each. The fairies grouped together above with floating bishops who aimed their staffs menacingly at Morgan, above her Dwarf's and Sparrow slide down the mountain on shields being used as snow boards and aimed guns and a bow and arrow at Morgan menacingly. To Apple's rallying call various creatures swarmed in and growled at Morgan as if a beta was working up the nerve to usurp the alpha male of a pack of wolves.

"I'm supposed to be impressed... why?" Morgan asked as if mocking the fact that the combined army of five nations had just gathered together in front of her with the singular purpose of dumping as much violence on her as possible.

"THAT'S ENOUGH!" Suddenly a new figure entered the fray, a dragon dropped down between the alliance of five armies against one witch and her own dragon, from that dragon three individuals disgorged and glared daggers at Morgan. "Mom... That's enough." Morgan looked down at her daughter who had nearly been brought to tears, the dark orb in her hand shrunk a little. "Look at yourself." Obediently, Morgan examined her body that was at least a quarter to a third stone by now. "Look at Brogan." The dragon was putting up a tough fight but he was in no condition to continue, with so many broken bones, burns, slashes, fractures and bleeding coming from different areas, not to mention that certain area's were just plain missing chiefly the wing and the horn, if he continued like this he would probably die. "Mom... just stop... stop the fighting... stop the killing... it's not worth it. It never was." That ball of darkness finally disappeared, those body parts made out of cursed stone fell apart, the mother of the girl named Raven Queen fell into her daughter's arms with her head resting on her shoulder. But there was still one thing that needed to be done in the mind of that witch.

"...dummy." Morgan struggled to say while sticking out her arm that was missing it's hand in the direction of the army of different creatures.

Then Morgan collapsed completely as Raven held her mother in her arms.

"Ah... Apple..." Raven stated nervously when she saw the glares that the various people gathered together were shooting her.

"Alright break it up!" Various creatures moved to separate the army from Raven and her mother. "Decide on how you wanna execute her until after we save her life!"

"Oi that was rather exciting wasn't it?" Sparrow asked as he slid down the mountain side on his shield.

"Sparrow can you get someone down here to look after my mom?" Raven asked looking at Sparrow hopefully.

"Ah sure..." At once Raven took off leaving a confused Sparrow behind. "...no problem." Sparrow stated as he began calling Mira on his phone.

Raven doubted that her mother's last conscious act would be a insult, it seemed like her granted but this wasn't the time for that. Instead Raven came across the giant hole that was the huge crater that she had collapsed. Raven wondered where the Merpeople went, as they weren't present, and briefly wondered if they had taken away that Robert guy. As she was thinking about that Raven got an ominous premonition: those balls that were hitting Robert were only suppose to be a fraction as strong as the obscuri that he was powered by, so why didn't he, who unlike her mother who only had the one Obscuri, recover like she did? Or if he did recover then where was he?

"Dummy..." Raven stated aloud. "Dummy! Dummy! Dummy!" Raven chastised herself aloud while childishly stomping her feet.

Apple took notice of what Raven did and others looked at her uncharacteristic behavior and Apple ran over to her to calm her down.

"Raven!" Apple grabbed hold of both of Raven's arms and shook her back to her senses. "What happened? What's wrong!?" Apple looked very scared right now, catching wind of Raven's ominous premonition.

"Apple he was a dummy!" Raven stated panic stricken across her features.

"What?" Apple's face didn't understand what Raven was saying.

"The guy that Mom was fighting, the one everyone was shooting at earlier he wasn't real he was just a puppet like Cedar!" Apple seemed quite confused by what Raven was saying. "His consciousness was here but his body was somewhere else, he sent his consciousness here because he didn't want Mom to figure out where his body was but she already knew that, that was why she was trying to keep his mind here so that his body would be defenseless for someone else!" Raven was close to shouting now but Apple got the message with a horrified look on her face.

* * *

 **Review Section** :

rmarcano321: That it does. I'm a Necromancer boy myself.

Zwei Eis: Repent away.

DJ: Think of the Purificus as a computer virus deleting parts of Morgan's Glamour Charm, one that she initially ignored because it reminded her of her daughter. Well I believe I mentioned that Morgan and Raven have a little bit of demon blood in them from a few generations back.

Charlie: Does this answer your question?

Wade: That they are. That they will.


	74. Chapter 74

**Author's Note** : A whole week since I posted a poll on my profile and only a single vote as to what I should do. Tsk. Tsk. Read, Review Favorite and Enjoy!

* * *

Chapter 74: You Are Responsible for this, Evil Queen

The room had been decorated according to Wonderlandian tastes, the bright colors hurt her eyes. From her view point on top of the sofa Morgan saw what suspiciously looked like a metronome ticking away, except at the top of the counter were the numbers 6:15. The young woman in the hat who sat in the recliner with a clipboard in one hand pored a freshly brewed pot of tea.

"State your name for the record please." The Woman in the hat asked picking up a colorful quill.

"My name is Morgan Konigan." The Amethyst eyed witch in question stated. "I'm also commonly known as The Worst Evil Queen and the Dark Lord of the Demon Eyes." The Woman in the Hat chose to make note of the first of the three names.

"Why don't you tell me about how you came here?"

* * *

Morgan had been moved onto a stretcher, a mask had been placed over her face pumping Doremouse essence directly into her lungs to keep her asleep. A mixture of Dwarfen, Fairy and Wonderlandian medics were attending to her injuries. Brogan was proving slightly more difficult to treat, purely because of the sheer size of his body. Instead a extensive amount of healing potion had been prepared with intent to feed it intravenously into the dragon's body until all of his injuries had been made to disappear. It was going to take a while. Both the bodies of the dragon and his mistress were being watched over by a temperamental dragoness, those personally familiar with Nevermore knew to stay far away from her, those who didn't were strongly encouraged to keep their distance by her newly developed habit of lighting herself on fire. But consoling a still panicking Raven who was prone on the edge of a giant hole in the ground flooded with water was Apple.

"Easy there Raven, easy." Apple soothed while she rubbed circles into Raven's back.

"How's she doing?" Faybelle asked as she, Ramona and Sparrow walked up to them from behind.

"Still a little freaked out over everything." Apple stated as she held Raven close to her.

"I guess this is what you call stockholm syndrome isn't it?" Sparrow commented casually shrugging his shoulders. Apple saw a change in Raven and let her go, at the same time Faybelle and Ramona stepped away from Sparrow. "What? What did I-GAK!"

Suddenly Raven had reached out and grabbed Sparrow around his throat and picked him up off of the ground before swinging around and holding him over that watery hole in the ground.

"Never. Speak. To. Me. About. Her. Again!" Raven growled, the look of sheer hate on her face not of someone who had just spoken about a unpleasant topic, but rather how she would address someone who just lost a valuable privilege for life.

"Got it!" Sparrow managed to wheeze before Raven put his feet back on the ground.

"Raven calm down." Apple stated putting her hand on Raven's shoulder. "It's over. It's finally over. We beat them, they aren't going to hurt anyone ever again."

"No Apple that's what I'm saying, I don't think this ride is over yet." Raven stated as the hairs creep up the back of her neck. As if to confirm Raven's fears, a explosion happened, off in the distance a giant tower of darkness erupted like some kind of geyser of hate with the twisted faces of the dead and damned winding around it like serpents.

"You just had to open your big mouth!" Faybelle snapped face palming.

* * *

"Should we talk about your daughter then?" The woman in the hat asked as she sipped her tea.

"What about my daughter?" Morgan asked glaring at her doctor.

"You should have been like her you know that right?" The doctor asked cocking a brow at her patient. "She who, forgive me for saying so, has faced hardship equal to your own, has spent a life time building up those around her. Her friends that she consoled in their darkest hours, the heroes that she had her dragon teach how to fight, the future rulers that she offered her counsel. But you? You break people down, you belittle them, you maim them in the most horrific ways that you can imagine. For all of your power and your knowledge the only thing you've ever done with it is destroy."

"If you're telling me I'm a abysmal failure then you're just saying what I already know." Morgan replied as she looked up to the ceiling.

"Oh Morgan, you misunderstand, you're not a failure at all. Your successes are what brought you here." That made Morgan actually look at her councilor for the first time.

* * *

One of the Draug had been knocked back hard enough that bits of his bony face were showing through, his opponents were several other Draug's who had been gathered there to serve as a elite strike team. The Obscuri had been allowed to rampage freely and rose and dived several times at the singular Draug, even as the various mer-people did their best to reign in the rampaging piles of curses. Wiping something off of his face as if by habit, the Draug took one look at the enemy before him and propped himself up using his sword.

"Come." Corvo's voice echoed in undead armor. Suddenly, a stream of water slammed into one of the Obscuri knocking it off balance a touch. "And where have you been?" Corvo asked glaring at the towering serpentine mass that was making it's presence known as it used water to take pot shots at the undead.

"When one is fighting against the one called the king of the Giants." Corvo looked up to see Jadis sitting on top of the shoulder of Smok, who was joined by several giants on either side. "It is best that one brings a few giants of your own."

" **Ich beschwöre ein totes Ding!** " A huge arm emerged from the smoke and nearly crashed down on the battered looking Corvo who just barely jumped out of the way in time. " **Aus toten Dingen gemacht!** " From that hole in the ground a monster emerged with a hundred arms and fifty heads sticking out in various odd places. " **In Form eines toten Dinges!** " The creature in question looked like it was made entirely out of dead flesh and bone. " **Um tote Dinge zu machen!** "

"My knowledge of black magic is a little rusty, no actually it's non existent, but did that guy just say that he summoned a giant corpse made out of smaller corpses to kill us?" Corvo asked as he climbed up next to Jadis.

"I believe that is a Hecatonacheire, a giant with fifty heads and a hundred arms." Jadis stated shrugging her shoulders simply.

" **Jadis!** " The voice of the necromancer who summoned that abomination, otherwise known as Robert, sounded again as he addressed the group gathered before him. " **What are you doing here!? I hold no grievances with you!** "

"No one answer him." Jadis instructed simply.

" **So... you have nothing to say do you?** " Robert's voice sounded even as his monster absorbed the obscuri floating around him.

"Take aim." Jadis instructed as various warlocks floated up into the air and aimed their staffs at the beast.

"You're really just gonna give him the cold shoulder?" Corvo asked cocking a imaginary brow at the witch queen in question.

"That man has been dead long before I was even born." Jadis justified with a shrug.

"So was I." Corvo replied as if offended.

"You're still here because you're too stubborn to die. He's still here because he's too belligerent for hell." Jadis stated simply shrugging her shoulders.

"I'm not sure I should be insulted or not. So if he's banished from hell where are we gonna put him?" Corvo asked gesturing to their enemy who started to look like he was offended because he was being ignored.

"Nowhere." Jadis stated simply.

"Nowhere?" Corvo repeated sounding like he was confused.

"Of course." Jadis glared hatefully at the creature responsible for driving her daughter to complete and udder madness. "We are going to exterminate every, last, piece of that abomination until there is absolutely nothing left."

* * *

"But he wasn't was he?" The hatted doctor asked her chin leaning on her fist as she looked down at Morgan knowingly. "Responsible for your madness that is. Let's take a step back shall we? What is the earliest memories that you can recall?"

"...I was pinned to the ground by a spear going through my side." Morgan stated a twitch having appeared in her eye that implied it was not a pleasant memory.

"Ah yes, Robert's handiwork, also known as Loki, Roth Bart, and to you 'The Bastard who ruined my life.'" The psychiatrist stated making notes in her book. "But again, did he really? I mean I would think that if he was to blame, you would have focused the bulk of that infamous hate of yours on him instead of on the dwarfs that you seem to take a odd delight in tormenting. Why is that?"

"It was easier, it was easy to focus my malice on something I could see but not reach. Because if I hadn't I would have destroyed my own country in two days. A week I would have triggered a chain reaction that destroyed all the realms. After a year I would have probably found a way of destroying myself too." Morgan knew a hundred different curses, she had researched every type of demon, every form of undead imaginable, every possible way to bring another living being suffering. To put it another way, the only thing Morgan knew how to do for all of her intellect was how to break things. That was the strength of the malice that she felt towards every thing around her.

"Tell me. Did you ever apply that considerable intellect of yours to try and do some good in the world?" The doctor asked a interested brow on her features.

"...No." Morgan replied simply.

"Not even a little bit?" The doctor asked squeezing her thumb and finger together for exaggeration's sake.

"No." Morgan replied even more firmly this time.

"Hmm. Fascinating." The doctor stated scribbling down more information. "What about the outbreak of catriolas five years ago?"

"What about it?" Morgan asked cocking a brow suspiciously.

"Well being the nasty little disease that is so stubborn it doesn't even die with it's host, it occurs to me that 'Adda's Wrath' could do it in quite nicely." Morgan briefly pondered the question for a moment. Adda's wrath was devised by a noble woman approximately two hundred and fifty years ago in order to kill off a rival family, essentially it's a curse that travels up and down the blood line: Curse a rival, and the curse will infect any living parents and children but ignore any siblings or spouses, until it did spread to the parents and children that is, it was a vicious brutal cycle that would continue until your every living relative was dead. "If you were able to isolate that stubborn disease that quickly accumulates a huge family, then when you applied that curse to it that spreads like a disease then that entire village could have been cured instead of having to be burned down with every living soul inside now wouldn't it?"

"...Yes." Morgan admitted shamefully. "Still. I didn't ask to become host to a obscuris now did I?"

"No but you could have removed it couldn't you?" The doctor asked cocking a sure grin causing Morgan to raise a eye brow. "After all, you were the one who made the new book and hid the old one right under it as a act of spite towards your father didn't you? Then all you would have to do is sign the book and that Obscuris would be sucked inside. Ah but would have required helping another being wouldn't it?"

"...Yes." That was the strength of the malice of Morgan Konigan, the one who refused to help anyone but herself even if it meant giving up a chance for happiness.

"Even more then that, it would also mean giving up that malice you feel towards those around you wouldn't it?" The doctor asked resting her chin on her folded together hands.

"...Yes, it would." Morgan admitted after thinking about it for all of thirty seconds. "Still without that malice Roth would still be at full strength instead of on his knees now wouldn't he?"

"No Morgan." For the first time, that smile came off of the face of that doctor who already knew everything there was to know about Morgan. "In that you are wrong."

* * *

Raven and Apple were flying towards that huge undead on Nevermore's back, the various monsters of Riordan were chasing after them thanks to the influence of Apple's knack.

"Ugh... my throat's getting sore." Apple commented, prompting Raven to hold up a potion flask that after she downed it caused Apple to notice the taste of cinnamon in the throat medicine. "Thanks Raven." Apple commented as her voice squeaked a little, having ran sore from constant roaring.

"You're not done yet fruit cake!" Faybelle was carrying a transformed Ramona and Cerise to the battlefield, a fact that Raven had filled her in on a while ago that the two were sisters. A fact that caused Apple to bang her head against a tree no less than three times. "This little flock of birds isn't even enough to keep that guy distracted!" Ramona barked in agreement to Faybelle.

"Speaking of!" Darling wearing sleek Knight armor alongside Kitty appeared on Darling's newly acquired horse piece, before they disappeared into Kitty's alternate dimension again only to quickly reappear from it. "Are we clear... on the plan!?"

"The rest of us keep that guy distracted while you shove that thing down his cursed throat? Yeah we're good!" Below, a mixed army had gathered together with dwarfs, fairies and monsters were rushing towards the battle field that already had giants, undead, mer people and spell casters duking it out.

"Huu. So it's officially seven armies is it?" Sparrow asked sighing in exasperation.

"Where did the giants come from?" Dexter asked, peaking from behind Sparrow.

"Does it matter?" Sparrow asked as the two of them made their way through the woods on the back of a one eyed manticore. "This situation has completely devolved into a total nightmare."

"Well we need to do our part too." The group of was leading a herd of dwarfs on the backs of Bronto's as they readied their guns to strike at the undead giant before them.

"Wait until you see the black beastie in the sky, then pick your targets around the big and ugly's body, try to hit the eyes of it's faces for maximum damage dealing potential!" Sparrow shouted getting his own gun ready. "Ready!" Several clicks echoed as the dwarfs armed their instruments of violence. "Aim!" Through magic scopes that told the dwarfs not only where they were aiming but where their compatriots were aiming too a black bolt zoomed into sight and fired a purple spear of flame at the upper most head of the giant multi armed being. "Fire!"

The balls of goblin forged metal imbued with purifying power struck every weak point that the gun could reach, Sparrow noted it's range, power and accuracy as he took out the eye on the monster's knee cap. With a series of crippling weak points struck the monster was brought down to it's knees. Robert's monster took notice of the little people firing at it from below, and raised up one of it's main oversize arms in order to deal a crushing blow to the insects that were in the midst of annoying it.

"RARRGGH!" Said arm was latched onto by Jormangandr who reached over and snapped her jaws down on the arm pulling the giant undead back.

"Reload and prepare for second volley! I don't know what that big snake's story is but I am mighty glad she's keeping that thing busy for us!" Another giant stepped over the group and slammed his fist into the face on top of the Hecatonacheire.

"Alright girls! This is where you're getting off!" Faybelle dropped the two transformed Gigan wolves she was carrying onto one of the arms of the enemy.

Ramona and Cerise took one look at a figure that was composed of arms and a head sticking out of the Hecatonacheire's back like a wart and nodded to each other in understanding. The two wolves blasted their quarry with a concentration of air pressure stunning it, Ramona took the lead and bit into the neck of that wart like existence hanging off it. Cerise followed that up by jumping at the base and mauling it with fangs and claws hacking away at the base until the force of gravity completely tore their quarry off. Of course the sisters weren't planning on ripping the limbs off one by one, now that a hole had been formed Faybelle readied something extra nasty.

"I'd run if I was the two of you!" Faybelle released a swarm of bee's infected with the matanago spores into the open wound where a arm had been ripped off.

Given such rich fertilizer, the spores grew rapidly, even more so when you understand that they had formed a lichen with the algae of the mer kingdom and thus could draw upon the sun's light for extra energy to reproduce with such vigor.

"Alright you two! We got..." Faybelle was suddenly interrupted as several loud booms fired rounds into the elbow joint of a arm that was about to smack her out of the air, Faybelle looked down to see Sparrow smirking at her. "We've got holes to make!"

Of course they didn't plan on simply using their ace, the purificus, in the opening moments of the battle, that would just be stupid. Now they were going to tear this thing apart until Robert revealed himself and then they were going to slam that shield into his stupid face until every last trace of his damned soul was gone from this world. That didn't mean that Darling was staying out of his brawl. The Mer-People chucked their spears and grappling hooks at the leg of the Hecatonacheire without end and Darling took advantage of the newly created foot holds to begin rapidly climbing until she reached one of the main arms of the beast.

"This sword was made for me." Darling explained pulling out the now long sword that was sheathed on her back. "But I wonder what it'll look like on you!" Darling ran up the arm of the Hecatonacherie and stabbed the blade through the hand of the monster. Now that it was the giant who was 'wielding' the blade it suddenly grew to a massive appropriate size, through it's hand and most of the arm as well. "Hit it Kitty!" The horse piece that Kitty used her powers to shoot high into the sky landed on the far end of that gargantuan blade's hand and ripped the blade out of the giant's flesh the hard way rendering the limb useless.

"I'll take that back if you're done with it!" Darling sailed through the air with a jump and grabbed hold of the blade, using it's size shifting powers to break her fall as Kitty came and got her. "We should probably move out of the way now."

Smok got back onto his hind quarters and loosed with a powerful blast of fire at the giant mass of rotting flesh.

"These people don't mess around do they?" Daring commented from his view point on the back of Rosabella who had turned into the form of a Fiend. "Well guess I should try to do my job too." Daring smiled at the head of one of the nearby Hecatonacheire and succeeded in stunning it making it recoil and shifting the surrounding flesh some as it adjusted to the light being flashed in it's eyes. The fairies wasted no time with that opening and loosed a series of healing spells making vast swath's of flesh collapse under the bombardment.

"Yes!" Daring felt downshift as he realized their area was caught in the healing bombardment too. "Oh No!" The two fell off the rotting mass of flesh, but thankfully golden dust guided them to another, more stable area of the monster for them to climb on. "Here we go again."

Raven and Apple were flying above, surveying the carnage being wreaked upon the Hecatonacheire. Raven felt... underwhelmed. Was this thing really what her mom was afraid of for all these years, what she had spent so much time and effort into researching, studying, stock piling power to beat down? Sure it was fighting against six or seven armies worth of fighters right now, but no matter how you looked at it this was just a one sided beat down. However one thing they hadn't counted on was that with large portions of the monster's flesh being torn off, the Obscuri that was powering those limbs would be released, and one was heading straight for them.

"Alright lets see if we can get rid of this thing!" Raven aimed her staff at the dark mass and prepared a force blast spell. But while that was happening another Obscuris came flying up and hit the three of them off from the side. The three figures of two princesses and a dragon fell into the watery depth's below.

* * *

"Hmm. Quite a few Obscuri here. I wonder how that happened." The doctor commented scratching at a imaginary beard. "It's almost as if someone has been actively sowing fear of magic kind into the hearts of thousands of people for the past two decades." Oh yes. Morgan understood there would be reckoning coming for her soon, and not just from the living either. After all, so many of Robert's victims were her very own, after all so few even knew the man existed to begin with.

"Tell me something narrator." Morgan stated having deduced the nature of the one before her. "Is there something you would like to tell me?" Morgan asked glaring hatefully into that woman's eyes.

* * *

 **Review Section** :

rmarcano321: That they are.

DJ: Let's see you fall off a mountain and see how tough you are. Robert has no grudge against the Queen Family, he simply used and manipulated Morgan to his own gain, if not for her so many of the Obscuri that he proliferates wouldn't exist.

Zwei Eis: I take it that was you who voted then? Well I'm feeling a bit whelmed at the moment from other extenuating circumstances so I'll work on it later. Wonderlandian armor and it's various unique properties take time to get used to it's exact rigors. Going straight to queen is like trying to get to the finish line in a single bound.

Jascmaster: Indeed.

Charlie: Witch, Dragon, Wonderlandian soldiers, mer people, giants, various armies in general.

Wade: You would think wouldn't you?


	75. Chapter 75

**Author's Note** : Okay, so that's what I get for posting a pole with mostly anonymous readers to my story's. Just so y'all know I'm gonna go with the Monster High Ever After High cross over, I got a little bit of interest in a Reincarnated as a Slime Overlord crossover so maybe I'll do that too after a little while. Either way I plan on beginning to write the MHXEAH Crossover today. So Read, Review Favorite and Enjoy!

* * *

Chapter 75: You Were Born Wrong, Evil Queen

Morgan was sitting up right now, glaring at the one who sat across from her, and who brought her to this place.

"What do you want narrator?" Morgan asked glaring at the woman in question.

"Tea mostly." The woman stated drinking from her cup. "I will admit I picked up a few of the Hatter girl's quirks while we were in each other's place in existence."

"Well I'm so glad that you're enjoying yourself!" Saying that Morgan got up to leave, only to collapse on the ground.

"Did you forget the beating that you took from your daughter's magic?" The narrator asked shaking her head in amusement.

"...Briefly, I will admit." Morgan replied after a pause. To her annoyance though, her attempt to call materials to her to construct substitutes failed rather miserably.

"This isn't actually the real world you know. It's a hallucination created by your dying brain cells and riddlish anesthetic, which is how we're communicating FYI." The Narrator explained indicating her own head as Morgan suddenly found herself back on the couch. "What did you expect from relying on a Obscuris to keep yourself going for eight years? That you could eat a little Boarbatusk and everything would be all better? Oh no." Amused the narrator shook her head at the Morgan who was glaring at her. "You are dying, the thing that has kept you going is dying, and soon you will be dead. Important parts of the information needed to rebuild your failing body has been destroyed when you got hit by the Purificus."

"You seem awfully chipper for someone talking about their conversation partner dying." Morgan commented spitefully.

"There's that malice again." The Narrator stated shrugging her shoulders. "You weren't suppose to be like this you do realize this right?" Morgan only cocked her eye in response. "When most people learn they have the power to change the world, they try to change it for the better instead of becoming a bitter spiteful hermit like you who has spent her free time think of imaginative ways of killing dwarfs just to keep their malice in check."

"Yes, yes. I'm a horrible monster we've established this already." Morgan stated giving a eye roll.

"But you weren't suppose to be like this." Morgan cocked her eye suspiciously. "Well it's not purely your fault: Robert definitely did shape much of your environment and tutelage for you. But tell me something: What do you think that your daughter would be like were she put into your shoes?" Morgan cocked her eye suspiciously at that. "I think you already know the answer to that, after all the lives the two of you lived was very similar, both of you grew up being objects abject terror of the world at large, thanks in no small part to the actions of others. If you wanna know what I think, I think that if you were Raven's daughter, and she your mother, then only one of you would have ended up suffering." Morgan felt something tug on her, perhaps the pull of death that this narrator was warning her about. "Seems like this world is calling you for one last act of spectacular violence." The Narrator stated smirking knowingly. "Don't keep your old friend waiting Dark lord."

* * *

Apple spat some of the turf out of her mouth. Feeling around her mouth with her tongue she realized that at some point in time she landed face first in the ground, based on all of her teeth that had been knocked loose. Apple tried to push herself up but collapsed to her side, looking over she saw her arm twisted around until it was backwards.

"At this rate I'm going to be crippled for life." Muttering that Apple pushed herself up and began limping around the area.

Several snapped branches and a tree that had been snapped in half traced the path that Nevermore took when she came down. The dragon was in rough shape, flesh had been stretched and twisted around the main shaft of her body, her tail, wings and other limbs had been broken and twisted around at even more sick angles then what she was from the obscuris, the only sign of life was the steadily rising and decreasing flesh of the beast, Nevermore was still breathing at least.

"Alright so you're alive at least." Blood shot eyes opened at the sound of Apple's voice. "I'm sorry but I don't have anything I can use to help you. As soon as I find Raven I'll go get Mira and she can put you two back together." Nevermore seemed to agree as she struggled to use her tail to point further down the trail, where Apple saw Raven's broken body sprawled out on the ground.

"Damnit, Damnit, Damnit!" Apple made her way over to Raven as fast as she could, in addition to the usual injuries one would expect from falling from the sky, broken ribs, snapped limbs and a broken back Raven's head looked like it was on backwards though a quick examination revealed that her face was merely on backwards, which meant that her air way had been cut off. "Alright Apple calm down, you just need something sharp to cut into Raven." Someone tapped on Apple's shoulder and she saw Nevermore's tail holding one of her own teeth that was was knocked out of her head. Apple grabbed hold of the tooth and used it to slice open Raven's mouth, but to her disappointment it became readily apparent that Raven wasn't breathing. "No no no no no no no no!" Apple sucked in a deep breath as she prepared to blow oxygen into Raven's lungs via mouth to mouth.

* * *

After a considerable amount of time and effort Darling succeeded in climbing to the top of the formerly hundred armed monster, everyone constantly dumping violence on it had cost it quite a few limbs and heads. Now here was Darling making her way to the last head, and as soon as she chopped it off they would be done with this mess and they could go home.

"Well I would like to say that it's been nice knowing you but..." Thanks to this guy, they've had to deal with three hundred years worth of curses, monsters, racism and sexism and it would be a good day once he was gone from their lives forever. "I'm really going to enjoy this too much." Saying that Darling raised the shield up above her head and prepared to slam it face first into the nose of the Hecatonacheire. "OAAAAUUU...!" Screaming in pain and confusion Darling brought her hands to her face, only to see that they were no longer there, instead bloodied stumps. "WHAAA!" Darling was so surprised that she ended up falling off of the giant undead and had no hands by which to grab hold of something Darling was instead saved by a cloud of golden dust.

"How did?" Faybelle asked looking confused. "Don't analyze it HEAL ME!" Darling snapped wincing in pain from the absence of hands.

"First lets seal the wounds." Faybelle used barrier magic to cut off the bleeding. "Now, to do something about the hands." Even though Faybelle thought that she looked mighty confused scratching herself with the pointed tip of her Halberd so she opted to try to change the topic. "What did happen to your hands anyway? Did that giant bite them..." As Faybelle was asked that, she looked up to see the swirling mass of light and rapidly vanishing darkness in the sky. "...You were holding the Purificus at the time weren't you?"

"That obvious eh?" Darling snapped before delivering a kick to the stunned fairy's side. "Hands?"

"Well that stuff has probably burned your hands off so stitching them back on is likely out of the question so..." Faybelle tapped the side of her hip while she tried to think of a solution.

"Can't you make a new pair of hands out of magic wood like what was done with Raven?" Darling asked glaring balefully at Faybelle.

"Do I look like pinnochio or the blue fairy to you?" Faybelle asked looking offended.

"Forget it." Darling grabbed hold of her sword that was floating next to her with her teeth and turned her attention to the undead giant behind her. The last of the Hecatonacheire's heads was gone now, likely consumed in the same blast that took both of Darling's hands, at the same time, now that the light had consumed the darkness, the swirling mass in the air crashed into the earth like failing star around where Nevermore and her two passengers crashed.

"Considering the fact that stuff came from Raven in the first place I don't find it a coincidence that it's made a beeline for her exact position. Given the fact that we should probably make sure that loser is dead this time I'll go find him while and you and your imaginary hands can go and check up on those three." Darling knew she was being made fun of but she had no time for it. Kitty showed up with their ride and Darling hopped aboard.

"Attention all Faye!" Faybelle stated prompting many of the fairies to stand at attention, the dwarf like Spriggans, the seal-ish Selkie, the Scaly Salamanders, and the ever popular butterfly like Aerials. "We have a prisoner to secure, pick apart that rotting corpse and someone do something about these miserable pile of curses flying around!?" The Wonderlanders acted at once, or more accurately their Jabberocky's, having already received report about the origins of the purificus the beasts hurled goblin forged spears provided by Riordan's armies at the clouds of darkness and followed that up with a generous dose of riddlish rainbows to rip the cursed tumors from their undead hosts and trap them inside of the spears, which like with the shield was trapped in their reverse form and turned into Purifici and subsequently left to their own devices burning into the ground.

"Did you bring those spears along specifically because you knew we were coming?" The White Queen asked blade pointed accusingly towards Jadis.

"To be more accurate, I was aware of the giant holes in the sky my grand daughter tore open to bring you people here." Jadis stated not taking her eyes off of the location where her grand daughter went down, where a group of giants were already making their way there. "I merely took advantage of the full scale invasion you launched on my kingdom."

"We won't apologize if that's what you're going for." The White Queen stated resting her sword on her shoulder.

"I didn't expect you to. My daughter dragged you into her personal grudge and your people and you personally have suffered severely for it." Jadis stated her tone of voice imply that she honestly didn't care either way.

"Three Gods you people are impossible." The White Queen seemed to give up as she saw the last of the swirling white in the sky give way way to clear blue. "Well there goes your curse killer. What are you gonna do now?"

Suddenly rotting flesh gave way to an eruption of white hot flame as a spear came through the Hecatonacherie, through that gaping hole, a individual with an annoying tendency to not die when he should climbed out and brush himself off.

"That was a... cute trick with the spears." Several more swath's of rotting flesh gave way to eruptions of white nearly eradicating the giant undead in the process. "Unfortunately though, I'm going to have to ask all of you to leave now."

"Hey! Do yah mind if we borrow one of those?" The White Queen asked pointing at the super heated spears floating around Robert. "We'll be sure to give them right back to yah." The Queen of the White Chessmen stated giving her most unashamed grin possible.

"Sure. Here yah go." Robert stated flinging magical spears at the two women.

* * *

"Oooooohhh..." When all of this was over, Apple was dumping a bottle of aroma therapy into a hot tub and soaking until her body stopped hurting. Or maybe a cold bath she felt rather warm at the moment, did that last explosion of magical energy set the area on fire or... "Wait, where's that smoke coming from?" Apple looked down and notice that she was smoking hot, literally, her entire body was glowing white as if it was being super heated from the inside out and her clothes were paying the price for it. "GYAAHHAHAHAHA!" Apple's little freak out was interrupted by someone pulling something over her head.

"Here Maddie thought you'd need this." Apple pulled what she quickly realized was Maddie's hat off of her face.

"Young cat why did you put head ware on my mask spot?" Apple asked before she quickly slapped a hand over her mouth.

"Turns out Maddie's hat has a built in transmitter, with all that magic going through you and Raven we thought you'd need it." Apple needed to process what Kitty was saying for a moment. "You see the little witch queen and her hand bag around here by any chance?"

"Over mine shoulder?" Apple replied as she turned around to where she thought Raven was only to see that she wasn't.

"Cat of Cheshire the Dark cloud got to them!" Apple stated grabbing Kitty by her dress.

"We have see where they are!" A shriek of pure nightmare cut through the evening.

"Found em." Another dragon had joined the fray, easily in Brogan's weight class, thinner but no less muscle, a fan of blades swung from a long tail while runes of speed strength and armor glowed a bright light. A silhouette formed in the blinding purple light of the beast, wings, body, tail came together to form the shape of a skull before the monster dive bombed and tackled a flaming bird pinning her to the ground. "Duchess!"

"GAHAHAHA! IT BURNS! IT BURNS!" Apple's body couldn't contain the raw power she had absorbed, so it was burning her, using Maddie's hat as a transmitter it must have used her knack for animals to dump as much of it as possible into as many animals as she could. Duchess qualified.

"Turn into a phoenix!" Complying with the request the burning hot metal of a Stymphalian was replaced by pure fire, fire that climbed rapidly before disappearing entirely, leaving behind a ash covered teenager fresh as a newborn. "Taking fire with fire you've adapted." Duchess was utterly flabbergasted with the stranger's arrival. White was the first thing that came to mind. Enviously pale skin and hair like the silver moon, Duchess could almost fall in love with that face if not for one thing: hate, pure unadulterated rage burning in amethyst eyes though thankfully not aimed at her.

"Raven?" Duchess asked looking at her one time mentor.

"I can explain later, go to Apple and soak up the last of the magic she got from me before all of our reinforcements burn up." Duchess looked around, the animals that the Queen had summoned were writhing about in pain. The white Raven turned to her glowing beast. "Sick em." Raven stated bluntly, indicating the super heated spears that Robert had been using against her grandmother and now fancied using against her. The white hot flame of a Purificus exited from what Duchess was quickly realizing was a super sized Nevermore, the flames mixed with the lesser versions of themselves located in the spears while the riddlish tried to decide whether the spears should be cursed or purified. Apparently finding it's answer, a explosion indicated the destruction of the weapons in question. Then the glowing dragon turned her attention to the cursed mage, but was stopped by a hand more solid then adamantine. "He. Is. Mine!" Saying that, the transformed Raven started to walk forward.

"Hmm. Interesting. It seems that you reclaimed the power of the Obscuris you had, but altered." Raven pointed a staff forward, a tube of barrier magic formed, charged magic and fired, grazing Robert and carving a trench behind him. "Was it the riddlish? But then what destroyed the goblin weapon?" Robert prepared to retaliate with one of the super heated spears, only for it to be intercepted by a length of fire setting off another explosion as fire ate fire. And this time he saw the reaction. "No you changed it back to a obscuris somehow, curse met purification and canceled each other out. But what did you do?"

"You wrote the book on fairy tales, figure it out." Raven made a compressed rotating ball of white hot flame and flung it at Robert who countered by putting up several barriers and jumping out of the way.

"Ha. So you met your True love eh? I'd like to say I'm happy for the two of you but it's really inconvenient for me right now." Robert stated as he dodged another canyon carving blast from Raven.

"Don't worry: I'd need a shower if you did." Saying that Raven successfully manipulated her enemy into the place that she wanted. "But you on the other hand will have to settle for a bath." Manipulating the earth beneath his feet, Raven cast her enemy into the underground lake that he had been hiding in for a hundred years, now Raven's territory. Now with the power of the queen family knack transmitting through every molecule of water turning it into her Raven's personal portals.

"Ah...!" Robert was consumed by the watery portal and chucked into another dimension.

"And for my next trick!" Raven scattered magic into the ground and fused it with the ground, producing several solid chunks of stone infused with purifying power and flung them into the water. The stones hit hard and fast, appearing from newly opened portals, slamming into Robert at terminal velocities, entering new portals elsewhere. Repeating the attacks over and over again Robert eventually gained enough of a upper hand that he was able to use the spacial distortions that his disease was known for to crush the stone in front of him. But once enough stone dust had been released into the watery dimension it formed a paste and clumped onto Robert's body, then tightened, then hardened, as he was lifted up into the air and out of the watery space.

"Do you know what the difference is between your Obscuri and my Purificus?" Raven asked, her voice a barely contained mass of rage.

"Do you intend to give me some lecture about how love is stronger than hate?" Robert asked laughing sinisterly.

"Have you forgotten who my mother is?" Raven asked a surprised look on her face. "I know very well the power of hatred. I know for instance that it's sheer capacity for destruction is equal to or greater than the love you have perpetuated in your stories." Raven narrowed a glare at her enemy. "I am referring to the difference of one word 'True' my love is true, but your hate is but a means to a end." Raven looked around as the giants and fairies as they gathered to wail away on Robert. "You took advantage of the poor and desperate, convince them they are inherently better then others simply because of what they are, and that to prove it they have to wipe out their would be oppressors. This has been going on for so long that the people who should be on top have instead come to agree with the ideology of the people at the bottom looking at them with jealousy and hatred until those pests up there were born." Raven stated pointing upwards to the glowing spears that were floating around in the air above them. "Those people die from the sickness you implanted them with, and they begin hunting you after they turn into Revenants. You use yourself as bait to draw them in and trap them inside of this damned place using the principle of the cursed attracts the cursed. Then you siphon off their power and use it for a variety of purposes, like making those undead, and cursing all of the animals so that they turn people into more animals when they die. Just at a peak of curiosity, you don't use that power for other things do you?"

"I can't use it to grow foods if that's what you mean, I don't have the right personality for it and they would wither and rot away if exposed to this much death energy. Though we do use the zombies and skeletons to tend the fields." Robert explained shrugging his shoulders and giving the impression of not caring either way. "The job of growing the plants for food and potions is your family's responsibility."

"That's good." Raven replied genuinely smiling from the bottom of her heart, even as a terrifying mass of concentrated pure white energy appeared above her head directed by her finger tip. "I don't need you anymore."

Apple was with Darling and Kitty as the three of them were making their way out the forest.

"The shield exploded when I did mouth to mouth with Raven?" Apple asked after receiving an explanation from Darling.

"You blew my hands off!" Darling growled in a menacing tone of voice.

"Calm down Calm down! I'm sure that Faybelle can arrange to get you a new set!" Apple stated holding her own hands up in defense.

"I already asked her!" Darling growled with increasingly impatient tones.

"And?" Apple asked though she suspected she didn't want to know the answer.

"Does it look like she helped!?" Darling snapped holding her stubs up.

A mass of white magic had been gathered in front of Raven in the form of a ball and was trying to incinerate something at the center. Realizing that thing hadn't budged and wasn't going to, Raven removed that crushing mass of burning purifying flame and revealed a new creature inside of the flame, a huge tall shadowy body, the skull of a demon rested in place of a head while boney hands were at either side.

"I was wondering what you would look like without the glamour." Raven commented sizing her opponent up and down. "It's actually not as different as I thought it would be."

" **My normal appearance looks like this?** " Robert asked looking mighty confused for a stack of shadows topped by a horned skull. " **My I must invest in better Glamour.** "

"I wasn't talking about your appearance." Suddenly a new figure crashed down in between Raven and Robert.

" **She was talking about me!** " Another ten foot tall mass of shadows stacked by a dragon's skull made it's appearance known. " **Now get away from my daughter!** "

* * *

 **Review Section** :

rmarcano321: True. This one? I've only got five left. The next one? Until I figure I should stop.

Guest: Duly noted, thank you.

DJ: Good to know. Chapter 69, Duchess iced one of his wings, then he fell down a mountain and crushed it.

Zwei Eis: Thanks for the PM. I have no idea what the indiscriminate block of letters means. I think it had more to do with sleep deprivation than anything else.

Jascmaster: Thank you for the vote!

Wade: Can't argue with that.

Charlie: No the narrator is not me: I for one am not a lady, nor do I like to drink tea.


	76. Chapter 76

**Author's Note** : Another Chapter down, four more left to go. Read, Review, Favorite and Enjoy!

* * *

Chapter 76: The Death of the Sorcerer

Raven remembered that night as vividly as she could see her now, the first night she witness her mother loose her self restraint, when she slipped into form combining Monster, Demon and Undead into one horrific package. It took three hours for her father, a high tier undead warrior, to restrain her mother enough that she calmed down, and it was only after she turned back to normal did Raven see any trace of her mother in that walking nightmare. In more recent events did Raven realize that that form was a direct consequence of being host to a Obscuris, drawing into oneself the various curses of her home land like it's undead soldiers and monstrous attack animals guarding the border.

"You don't got one of those do you?" Apple asked not taking her eyes off of the two newly appeared monsters, having some idea of who they were and where they came from.

"I don't think so. At the very least I bleed so Mom didn't Glamour me into this form." Raven appeared to have just thought of something. "It could explain why Baba sent me off to live in Ever After at such a young age."

"Are you two done with this conversation?" Darling's face was a mass of twitching rage.

"Because I would like to have the sincere pleasure of pointing out THIS IS ALL YOUR FAULT!" Darling screeched waving burnt stumps in front of the two's faces.

"Oh... Ah... Oh Wait I have an idea!" Saying that, purified water and bits of dirt was pulled out from down below and made into a paste and went towards Darling's hand stumps. "This is probably going to hurt a lot."

"You're just mentioning this part-GYAAAAHHHA!" Darling screamed in pain as the paste entered her arms and she ended up rolling over in pain.

"Maybe we should have moved away before trying this?" Raven commented as she saw Nevermore unleash flames of purifying power on the pair of newly arrived cursed individuals.

"Did someone ask for me?" Kitty pulled Darling onto her horse piece while Apple and Raven hopped on behind them, and after a brief gaunt through dark matter arrived safely away from the battle field with darling in tow.

Morgan, or the creature formerly known as Morgan it was hard to say, seemed to take notice of this if the way that she hit her enemy with black hellfire was any indication. The purifying power in Nevermore's flames and the cursed power in Morgan's hellfire mixed together and set off a series of spectacular explosions. Morgan fearlessly leaped through that scorching flame and grabbed hold of her enemy by one of his horns and slammed it into the ground before running at a high speed, grinding the head of Robert down until they had a head on collision with a tree. Robert's head slammed into the tree so hard that it snapped in two and fell over, Morgan responded to this turn of events by picking up the tree in question and using it as part of a home run swing against Robert sending him flying through the air.

"Hang on I think you bit your tongue just now." Raven held up her hand to a restored Darling and it glowed with the blue light of healing magic. "Come on I said I was sorry okay!?" Raven stated as Darling stuck out her still bleeding tongue and Raven healed the wound.

"Since when do you you have a convenient ability like this?" Darling asked testing her grip in her newly regrown hand.

"Well... how should I put this..." Raven looked like she was speaking about something difficult as she awkwardly scratched the back of her head, Darling cocked a impatient brow at Raven.

"Did you do something weird to my hands? No wait you already did that, so what did you do to my hands? Because it looks suspiciously like you made me new hands out of clay." Darling continued with the third degree, the anger aimed she originally aimed at Raven was now being amplified by the irritation she felt by her suspicious behavior and awkward silence. "Kitty my sword, I have to remove my hands now."

"I consulted with the magic spirits in my head and they suggested I take raw materials from the earth and lake and feed them directly into your body as nutrients and use that to regrow your hands please don't chop them off!" Raven suddenly blurted out all at once having been prodded along by Darling's threat of self mutilation of the highest order.

"Hmm." Darling cocked a disbelieving brow at Raven, leaned over, looked at Apple, who nodded her head reassuringly. "You could have just said that in the first place." Darling got up as she got her sword back from Kitty.

"Wait you believe me?" Raven asked taken back with shock.

"Raven, after all the Crazy stuff you've been through, if you weren't crazy, you wouldn't be human." Darling stated in a cynical tone of voice that made Raven legitimately cringe. "But the issue of your sanity isn't relevant. Because you can do all the crazy stuff you say you can do." The warrior woman stated putting her hand on Raven's shoulder reassuringly.

"That brutal honesty thing is really working out for you eh?" Raven asked cracking a smile.

"Hey it worked when you used it on me." Darling stated as she shrugged her shoulders with a smile. "But back to seriousness."

Robert was continuously summoning a hoard of undead minions, he had halted the use of undead warriors and had now moved on to the arche spores of a variety of highly unpleasant animals mixed with highly unpleasant cursed plants. But both plants and the undead shared a common weakness, fire. So Nevermore had set the entire forest on fire in order to eliminate each and every one of the monsters that were already spawned and eliminate all of the raw material to make new ones in one fell swoop. But for those on the ground.

"Your dragon just murdered the forest." Darling commented dryly.

"Nevermore!" Raven held her face in her hand and cursed her dragon who had no appreciation for the forest she just destroyed and the ones, namely herself, who would be tasked with restoring it.

"NEVERMORE!" Apple let loose with her most indignant-with-anger shout yet. "YOU GET DOWN HERE RIGHT NOW!" Though the dragon took note of her she instead resumed her deforestation efforts. "She ignored me! She never ignores me!" Apple indignantly squawked like a child who wasn't getting attention from her favorite relative. "Well..."

"Out with it." Apple glared Raven into submission.

"Animals with high intelligence, like Dragons, can ignore the effects of mind control type abilities like yours." Raven explained as she scratched her head, which by now Apple realized was Raven's tell.

"But she use to listen to me before right? What's changed now?" Apple asked tapping her foot with a look that demanded that Raven spit something out already.

"Nevermore is... technically my familiar so my feelings get transmitted through her, well sometimes, and I really do like you so..." As if to summarize Raven's explanation Darling suddenly burst out laughing.

"The dragon has a crush on you!" Darling stated between breath's. "For the love of!" Apple stuck her fingers in her mouth and let out a loud whistle. Stymphalian dropped down from the sky and turned back into the form of Duchess.

"Can you not do that!?" Duchess demanded holding her hands over her ears.

"I can affect Duchess?" Apple asked before deciding this wasn't the time to ask. "Nevermore set the forest on fire, we need someone to put it out."

"Ugh!" Duchess cracked her neck as she glared up hatefully at Nevermore. "I really hate dragons!" Duchess spat spitefully, recalling the last instance that she was reduced to vomit.

Duchess turned into a phoenix of white purifying flame and dived through the flames of the forest gathering them together into a crescendo of white hot flames.

" **Looks like we both get to rot in hell old man!** " Morgan grabbed Robert by his neck and held him up to the flames.

" **Once again Morgan, it would seem that you have greatly misunderstood my intentions.** " Robert grabbed Morgan by her arm and cast a spell that flung her out of the vortex of flame without coming into contact with the vortex of purifying flame. Finally, Duchess focused that mass of raw destructive power down on the head of Robert. " **Mwahahahahaha! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHA!** "

The last remaining part of Robert was that insane sadistic laughter, and even that died quickly. No one wanted to take any chances with Robert this time so a thorough investigation was being launched to find a body, that said Riordan was suffering a reduction in man power right now. A large number of undead, the low tier zombie farmers and the soldiers, the Draugr from all over the country, had suddenly dropped dead, only the high level undead, the ones smart and stubborn enough to be self sufficient were still active. Even then, many of the Obscuri revenants had disappeared too, as if the person they blamed for their death's had suddenly died. Many, but not all, that other person still stood among the living, contrary to what that face might lead people to believe.

* * *

"Stop staring at me like that...!" Dexter stated huddled in one corner of the transport wagon, and in the other end was a tall black monster with the skull of a dragon for a head and wrapped in iron chains.

" **You're mistaken.** " Then, two red points appeared in those empty black eye sockets. " **My eyes were closed.** "

"Right..." Dexter poked his head through the front of the coach where his brother was working the reigns. "How long before we're there again? She's freaking me out!"

"Knock her out Dummy that's the whole reason you're here!" Daring growled his tone of voice indicated that he was fully aware of to whom it was he was escorting. Dexter went back and did his part to knock their prisoner unconscious as they approached Riordan's capital. "Someone running this place has a cruel sense of humor." The auto translate function on Daring's helmet informed him of what the sign above the gates leading into the capital said: 'Welcome to Hell.'

Contrary to what the sign seemed fond of implying, the capital was rather nice. The stalls were filled with fresh Fruits, Vegetables and Meats, the roads were paved and well maintained, there was just one, tiny, thing that stood out.

"What is with this scene like out of a book?" Daring asked looking at the diverse array of goblins, orcs, ogres, demons, undead and big huge pack beasts the size of a one story house that was between them and the castle.

"The city's name is Hell and it's guarded by monsters and the undead. I'm not surprised." Dexter stated letting out a sigh.

"Why are we taking the crazy lady to Riordan's capital again?" Daring commented as they passed by a particularly foul smelling mammoth.

"Apparently it's the only country that maintains a prison exclusively for mages, or..." Dexter turned back to the unconscious creature in the back of the carriage. "Whatever she is." Morgan was unceremoniously dumped into a coffin which was then secured shut by iron chains. The two brothers carried the coffin through the underground of the castle, straight to the medical room.

* * *

"Your treating her injuries?" The White Queen demanded to know, her fists slammed into Jadis's desk.

"Your situation is more complicated then you realize." Jadis's skin still itched, having Raven burn the curse off of her body left it's share of side effects. "Execution becomes more complicated with undead. And while I'm not entirely sure that it's right to spare my daughter, I do not like the idea of that stubborn malice of hers dragging her soul back into her broken corpse of a body. A scenario whose likelihood multiplies if I let you people have your way with her body."

"I can assure you by the time we're done with with her there won't be a body to reanimate." The White Queen growled.

"Then her spirit will seek out any trace of her body and build a new one by binding whatever is left to something else, or failing that simply return to the sight of her execution, in the heart of Wonderland if you have your way, and tear a chunk off of that and make a new body out of it." Jadis explained simply in no uncertain terms as she stood up and looked out her office window. "Given the unstable nature of your home land: Best case scenario she is revived as a fully living flesh and blood being perfectly content to live out the rest of her days not causing you any trouble. Worst case scenario her explosion of raw magical power mixes with your riddlish and turns everyone and everything within a dozen miles into a undead monster."

"Fine. We'll just kill her here." The White Queen stated simply.

"I forbid it. Ignoring the fact that she is my daughter whatever unstable pile of curses her rapidly dwindling life is currently holding back would be unleashed on my door step. I intend to let her die, as peacefully as possible, in a manner that will dispose of those curses." Jadis explained as she watched the carriage carrying her daughters unconscious body into the castle.

"Oh really? And how's that gonna work?" The White Queen asked disbelief clear.

"A slow death will release the curses a few at a time, as long as they are bathed in the flames of the purificus then they should be neutralized. That is further added by Morgan's stubborn attempts to hold them inside."

"That, actually makes sense." The White Queen was forced to admit letting out a sigh. "Alright I'll let my sister and those polygamous fetishists know the plan."

"So glad you agree: Now if you excuse me, I need to attend to some civil matters."

* * *

Blondie was rampaging through the castle, with the likelihood of Morgan's death in the days to come she was hunting for every piece of information on her so that she could write her official biography. At the moment she had successfully cornered one of the greatest potential sources of information on this topic.

"So how did you and Morgan first meet?" Blondie asked notebook in hand and staring down the strongest Draug left in the Kingdom: Corvo. "How did you become a Undead?" Silence once more. "How were you able to conceive a daughter? Was that before you became a undead or...?"

"Leave. Me. Be." Corvo stated without compromise.

"I'll have you know that I know you can't leave this room and you are not allowed to hurt me unless you ruin your relationship with your daughter. So then what-Hey!" Corvo picked Blondie up by her scruff and brought her over to a chute for the disposal of bio-medical waste and opened it in preparation to dump Blondie down it. "Hey! Hey! Hey!"

"Dad!" Raven poked her head out of the room she was in to check on the commotion. Imagine her surprised when she saw her father preparing to drop Blondie down the same chute they disposed of her mother's rotting necrotic flesh down. "Put her down!"

"Believe me I'm trying." Corvo stated in a obvious tone of voice.

"On the floor!" Corvo rolled his eyes and put Blondie down before returning to his post.

"Humans. Little necrotic flesh and you get all hyper." Corvo picked up a magazine he had been reading and opened it back up. "Never bothered your mother."

"And now I'm scarred for life. Thanks Dad." Raven stated pulling Blondie inside of the room that she had been stationed inside of.

It was interesting to say the least. Raven appeared to have been given a throne like contraption in which she sat down on and allowed the white energy she was continuously generating to be drained out of her and taken elsewhere.

"Are you okay?" Blondie asked looking around the room.

"I am hooked up to a siphon that is sucking the magic out of my body that is powering a contraption that is burning my mother's corpse with her consciousness and soul still inside." Raven had a serious un-amused look on her face as she stared blankly.

"I'm going to go with no." Blondie stated writing notes down. "So I was hoping to get some questions answered about your mother's life for a book I'm writing."

"Hmm." Raven debated the pros and cons of telling Blondie about her mother, she tends to write one third truth to two thirds hyper active enthusiasm. "What do you want to know?"

"Mostly..." Blondie turned back to the door and her face scrunched in confusion before turning back to Raven. "How!?"

"How what?" Raven asked cocking a confused brow.

"How... all of that!?" Blondie asked gesturing to the door the same way one might a snarling attack dog barely being held back by three inches of steel. "Right, so it's going to be one of those days." Raven rummaged around a bag next to her and handed over to Blondie a musty old book.

"Nice talking to you." Raven stated as she pulled out one of her own texts and started reading it.

"Is that...?" Blondie got the funny feeling she had just been dismissed by the young witch princess. "Right." Some what annoyed Blondie took her prize from the labors of nearly being dropped down a bio hazard chute and left.

* * *

"No!" Weiss White snapped vehemently as she slammed her palms into the table in front of her. "No alchemy, smithery, enchantments, runes, science or mining until you figure out how to do it without botching the environment of my country again! Do I make myself clear!?"

"But madam if we cannot do any of that..." A grim reminder of precisely what the queen of Fairy Tales had picked up from her neighbors appeared as one of Riordan's Thunder Bird's eye patterned wings passed by a open window behind Weiss. "...Yes Madam." A thoroughly defeated dwarf alchemist stated quite dejected at learning that his career path had been thoroughly dismantled. "At a peak of curiosity, if not alchemy what are we to do with our time?"

"Your majesty." Joyful walked into the room carrying a mop. "The bird shat on the wall again."

Wordlessly, Weiss took the mop from Joyful and handed it to the alchemist before her. With the business of her newly acquired vassals under her command sorted Weiss went to her balcony to take a look at her country, as it were. Many of the creatures she had inadvertently gang pressed into service ended up following her home, not that that was a bad thing as each one represented a measure of force equal to entire squads of dwarven warriors. Not to mention the fact that she still had said army of dwarfs, and a one time grand master weapon smith to the gods, if the rumors about Sindri were true that is, who was willing to work for her family again. From a military stand point, she seemed quite well off, now she needed to worry about everything else. From the standpoint of everything else, the various buildings of her country needed fixing after nine month's of magic vines rampaging through them. There was also the matter of building housing for the various creatures that she had brought over from Riordan. And importing cattle to feed them. And augmenting their crop production to feed those.

"Huu... Dwarfs at least don't eat this much meat." Domesticating monsters was proving an expensive endeavor. Suddenly however, the ground started shaking as a huge tower-esque building appeared off in the distance. "What the...?"

* * *

Apple was standing in front of the newly formed tower as she led various creatures inside. Birds were being directed towards the upper levels and were nesting there while the large mammals were being led to stables organized like a parking structure.

"...224 225 226..." John muttered like that as he counted the money Apple gave him.

"After we're done here I'm going to need some help getting the farms ready. We need a trench carved from a underground lake across the border, and a windmill to help pump it to the surface." Apple stated as she waved passed a couple of Fiends.

"Keep paying me like this and I'll build you a five star castle with all the fixings." John stated before something suddenly occurred to him. "But if it's a under ground lake: we can probably set up a geo thermal plant."

"That better then a windmill?" Apple asked cocking a eyebrow.

"It's the difference between the water pumping sometimes and all the time." John stated shrugging his shoulders.

"Alright I'll get some designs from you later." Apple stated letting out a sigh. "I still need to train the birds to leave their droppings on the farms and not on the castle."

A large shadow swooped over the pair and dropped down in front of Apple and John in form of Duchess.

"Alright I've watered the farms, am I done yet?" Duchess looked like she was having a hard day.

"No. Because we still need to stockpile on Phoenix tears." Towards this end, Apple chucked Duchess a bag full of onions. "Get to it."

"...I hate you. I hope you know that right?" Duchess stated glaring entire swords into Apple's skull.

"Peel the damn onions 'Evil Queen'!" Apple snapped as she stared Duchess off.

"GET BACK HERE YOU MISERABLE LITTLE DWARFS!" Apple looked over to see Darling chasing down what suspiciously looked like a group of veteran dwarf warriors on the back of her horse piece.

"Well I guess that's what happens when you train until you throw up blood every day for nine straight months." Apple commented as she observed Darling establish the newly minted pecking order.

* * *

Weiss could only stare in shock through her binoculars as her daughter and her friends took over her country, before that is she eventually removed said binoculars to smack herself in her face.

"I need a drink."

* * *

 **Review Section** :

rmarcano: That they are. Hmm... If I had decided on my current course of plotline from the beginning... maybe.

Zwei Eis: That it is. That they are.

Jascmaster: Good to know.

DJ: I thought it was obvious that who she was talking to was just in her head. Even if Morgan wasn't going to die from complications of her curses and Raven's magic, do you have the slightest idea how many acts of terror, mass slaughter and mass destruction she has committed over the years, couple that with the fact that it's become very clear that no cage can hold her. Robert's like a demon, with the sheer amount of curses in his veins the difference is negligible, and Raven did know about what her mother really did look like, I believe her exact words was that Robert wasn't too different from what she looked like.

Charlie: That she doesn't. People often forget that love just as often drives people to destruction as much as hate, that was just a little demonstration.

Wade: That it will.


	77. Chapter 77

**Author's Note** : Another down, just trying to wrap up things you guys might be wondering about right now. Read, Review, Favorite and Enjoy!

* * *

Chapter 77: You Wanted to Know Goldilockes

A canyon, located at the base between two mountains, the air burned with fire and the sky rained with death. Funneled through a rather efficient natural choke hold a large number of Draugr were making a great effort to get somewhere in a hurry. Thus far though the only place that they were going is hell, fast. One of the undead stood alone against the rest, not a Draugr like the others but a Draug, chopping to pieces the undead that came within range of his sword. Perhaps it was this chaotic environment that no one noticed the object that came down from the sky like a meteor and knock the top off of one of the mountain. Morgan emerged from the hole, but the still very much unstable Obscuris blew a chunk off of the road that she was trying to pull herself up on.

" _I devised one of my the earliest 'Obscuris compression' sub routines that day._ " "RAAGGHH!" Morgan growled as she sucked the black mist coming out of her hands back into her body. " _Pain, turns into rage. Rage makes for potent fuel for power. But it also clouds the mind, I needed to wait until I calmed down to make a new better one._ " Morgan looked over the mountain range and saw the fighting going on below. " _I'm not entirely sure how in my blind panic I wound up in the middle of 'Sabrina's Cross' a part of me suspects cursed instinct._ " Morgan got to work, the Obscuris with it's reality shredding properties made for a highly efficient bore and allowed her to tear hole into the cave and create some makeshift shelter for herself. " _Food wasn't growing in that place, it's what made me realize I didn't need it any more, going days without it and still going full throttle when I should be starving._ " Try as she might Morgan couldn't sleep either, another way that the Obscuris sought to torment her. " _I couldn't sleep either, and it was a lot longer then just three days. After a week, I finally decided to find a way to leave._ "

It was a long walk down the mountain, Morgan made camp over the ravine waiting for a opening to sneak through the horde of undead, that Draug was efficient she'll give him that much. Blocking, chopping, slashing, parrying all with a blade that has been dual enchanted to be nearly indestructible and vibrate at such a high frequency that it could easily slash through virtually any material. Still as he continued to push forward Morgan followed him, waiting for the opening when things died down, so to speak.

" **I don't know you.** " The Draug commented as he turned around to face Morgan. " **Yet you are thick with the stench of this place.** "

"I get told that a lot." Morgan commented as she climbed down the cliff side. "Don't worry I don't want to break into your fortress, I'm going the other way."

" **So am I, I have to push as many of these abominations back to where they came from before this curse resets tomorrow as I can.** " The Draug stated as he started moving forward.

"So you know that you're a undead then?" Morgan asked as she crossed her arms and looked her associate up and down suspiciously. "Do you know how you died?"

" **I can guess: ever heard of a Warrior named Corvo The Black?** "

" _I learned about Corvo in my families history class, he was a companion to my ancestor Sabrina Konigan, and general to her armies. He was tricked into sending their army to the front lines leaving behind only himself and his mistress to watch this place, a important choke hold that leads directly to the capital. He stood alone against the invaders, buffed by Sabrina into a entirely different league of warrior on top of being the most skilled in the lands at the time. He used the terrain as a choke point to fight only a few at a time. When his weapons broke he picked up the ones belonging to those he killed. When his armor was pierced he would use fire magic enchanted into his gauntlets to weld bits of his enemies armor onto his. High on buffing spells he fought against the enemy hordes for three days straight, before he finally collapsed and died from exhaustion._ "

Together Morgan and Corvo fought against the enemy undead, Morgan's advance necromancy knowledge gave Corvo some impressive buffs, poison infusion in particular caused Corvo's body to drip with the poison that gave him his power, and when he sprayed the enemy with it Morgan would light it using hell fire to torch their enemy.

" _As a undead, Corvo would never do anything like collapsing from exhaustion, and because he was never killed in battle his soul wasn't able to move onto the afterlife unlike the Draugr who would at the bare minimum would temporarily move on. Instead he just fought, for two hundred years he fought while he couldn't count the days or the hours. Each day the Undead he killed the day before were respawned and sent to be killed by him. His skills were constantly honed, absorbing the endless supply of negative energy increased his power, if there was higher class of undead than the Draug, Corvo likely turned into it eventually. His power became so great that what he couldn't accomplish in four days, wiping out the entire enemy army alone, he could now do within hours. Well that wasn't true, he could do that decades ago, what he learned when he did though..._ "

Corvo led Morgan to the sight of a execution, they found a crater, though that crater was filled in using dirt and stone and something buried at the bottom, at it's edge was a single ancient staff sticking straight up into the air like a grave stone. Corvo kneel down and seemed to pay the staff a great deal of reverence.

" **Her name is Sabrina Konigan, are you familiar with the name?** " Corvo asked giving Morgan the impression of a cocked brow.

"Yeah, I know it." Morgan stated before she redirected the question. "Who is she to you?"

" **A friend. The first time I got this far I found her chard corpse nailed to a wagon wheel, they burned her alive, she turned it into a ritual to bring back to life every soldier they had sent to die against me. But she also brought me back. I couldn't even avenge her death, their own stinking corpses killed them first, or they fled like rats on a sinking ship. Every time I make it this far I get pulled back to the beginning when the curse resets.** " Seemingly done paying his respects Corvo got back up. " **I would leave if I was you, this place will be thick with the dead in a couple of hours.** "

Morgan shape shifted claws and climbed her way back to the top of the ravine, she would wait until the undead returned and left again, then she would head out on foot, at minimum she felt she should eat something.

" _I was that close, but when the curse reset, I saw something, I saw something that would change my life. And solidified my resolve._ "

Corvo was sent flying back to the start point, the pieces of the undead reassembled themselves at the start of their charge. But two illusions appeared almost directly on top of Morgan.

"One of your finest works Master Rothbart." Morgan was familiar with that name, listening to it screeched over and over again in her ears every day for the past four years as that accursed book leaked it's secrets into her ears. But he was suppose to be dead a hundred years before this mess started. Why was he here. "Of the roughly three thousand individuals here, consisting primarily of males, most of them, we'll say... approximately twenty seven hundred will each have about eight children equaling to about... twenty one thousand seven hundred should be born with the understanding that it was the former Queen of Riordan who murdered their father's in the war between their countries. Which means that we have well over two thousand potential obscuri in the making."

"'Obscuri?'" Morgan asked vaguely familiar with the term.

"Well even though I say that, most of them will end up being rescued by Riordan's forces." Rothbart said letting out a sigh shaking his head.

"Still, thanks to you Sabrina now has that curse of last resort to raise a undead army to guard this check point. Tricking the enemy to dump stupid amounts of violence on these lands is revealing all of the countries weaknesses." Rothbart's pet sycophant explained rubbing his hands together in a typical poorly made villain archetype. "Riordan will be impregnable soon enough."

"Assuming that we can manufacture enough obscuri to power our guards. Come we have witch hunters to found." Rothbart explained as he continued on his way out of the fog. "Still this isn't quite as ambitious as your attempt with Blue Beard." The scrawny little minion explained, causing Morgan to twitch with rage.

"A failure but a educational one." Rothbart replied dismissively.

Morgan had enough, she chased the two men through the fog swiping, clawing, punching, throwing curses their way. She chased them all the way through the fog before she remembered that they were both illusions, mostly because they vanished before her eyes after the fog cleared. But Morgan's rage didn't disappear.

"I will destroy them! I will reduce all of them to a ashen blood smear across the ground! I will make every single one of them regret ever hearing the title 'Evil Queen!'"

" _I had a plan. I had a life goal. I had a name of the person I knew shaped this world to the hole in hell that it is, once I thought that name was Blue Beard. Now I knew it as Rothbart, more importantly, he was still alive. I only ever saw him one other time, standing in the apothecaries office where I was recovering from kidney replacement. I had something I could focus on. I had a out lit for the endless, bottomless rage that had plagued me for as long as I could remember. More importantly, I had something useful I could do with it._ " Morgan used her obscuris to tear through the hordes of undead and made her way directly to the fortress.

"Corvo, I'll need you to keep the armies busy long enough for Titania to make her escape." A woman who bore a rather suspicious resemblance to Morgan stated walking alongside the undead knight in question.

" **Understood Milady Sabrina.** " Corvo replied nodding his head.

"Titania, I need you to make sure our children get away from this place safely." Sabrina stated waving her finger at the future fairy queen in question.

"You don't need to tell me twice, they're both still inside of me after all." Saying that the fairy shrunk down to the size of a doll and flew away.

"Going down memory lane?" Morgan asked appearing behind Corvo.

" **One of the luxuries of my miserable existence is that I get to live the last few good moments of my life over and over again.** " Corvo turned around the conversation with the image of his dead master apparently done. " **What do you want? I thought you were leaving?** "

"I was, then I saw something interesting on the way out: you interested in killing the man who started the war that took your former master's life?" Morgan asked smirking sinisterly.

" **How many centuries has it been? He's surely dead by now.** " Corvo asked disbelief obvious in his voice.

"Oh he's quite alive. I've seen him before." Morgan stated knowing that her words were leaving a impact.

" **Were that true, I cannot leave this accursed place.** " Corvo stated his voice dripping with frustration.

"Yes you can! You rely on the raw cursed power of this fog to sustain yourself. You can sense it already can't you?" Morgan let the dark power leak out of her hands and enter Corvo's body. "I got what he was trying to make. I got a infinite supply of dark magic, enough to keep the both of us going for a very, long, time! I can share if with you if you agree to do something for me." Morgan explained knowing that her verbal sparring partner was on the verge of being finished off.

" **And what would that be?** " Corvo asked giving the impression of cocking a suspicious brow.

"Marry me!" Morgan stated simply and without compromise.

" **What?** " Corvo asked looking rather confused.

"Ugh." Morgan gave a eye roll to her confused fiance. "Follow me!" Corvo followed Morgan outside, the Draugr's would be here soon without him to stop them and he never tried taking them on all at once either. "We magic people, have this bad habit of falling in love with people who die off hundreds of years before us. So to compensate for that, we created a spell that binds our souls together and allows us to share that ridiculously long life span with another." Morgan took off her coat. "Strip now!"

" **What?** " Corvo asked confused.

"Strip, we need black and white face paint and rope too." Morgan stated as she took her shirt off.

" **This is a two hundred year old military base, where in the devil are we going to get face paint and rope!?** " Corvo snapped rightfully outraged.

"I'm going to go strip the bark off of those trees over there, you need to gather up some of that bird shit dung and crush some coal and mix it with water." You could tell what Corvo thought of that plan from the way his jaw was hanging open. After gathering the items they needed the castle wall was treated to the sight of a naked witch and a seven foot tall skeleton being held together using bits of scrap metal that had been welded and molded into place. Morgan used four of her fingers to draw two lines of black across the sides of Corvo's jaws and he in turn drew lines of white bird dung across her cheeks.

" **Speaking as the two hundred year old undead here: this has to be the maddest thing I've ever done.** " Corvo stated disbelief plain on otherwise frozen features.

"Really? This doesn't even reach my top ten." Morgan stated as she tied freshly minted rope around hers and Corvo's hands.

" **Really?** " Corvo asked sounding suspicious.

"Ten days ago, I cursed my magic instructor's rose bush into a hundred headed fire breathing monster to chase down the class jock and his minions so that they couldn't rescue his fiance from a sleeping curse that I had placed on her." Morgan stated cocking a knowing look at her would be husband.

" **... Well you just have higher standards than I do don't you?** " Corvo stated, once he popped his imaginary eyes back into his head that is.

"Yes now can we get the ceremony done now?" The nearby doors started banging as the hoard on the other side reached them. "Unless you want to fight them butt naked and with our hands tied together?"

" **Push comes to shove I'll just use you as a bludgeon to chase them off.** " Corvo stated shrugging his shoulders.

"Zweimal fessle ich uns." Morgan stated rolling her eyes. "Zweimal fessle ich uns." The two of them started glowing with dark magical power. "In Krankheit und Gesundheit." Splinters was coming off of the the door now. "Bis die letzten Sterne vom Himmel fallen." A storm of shadow was consuming the two of them now. "Lass uns niemals getrennt werden!" An explosion of magical power leveled the fortress.

" _Admittedly, I don't quite remember what happened after that. Normally the final step of the ritual has us transform into foxes or deer or some other kind of creature like that and go plow in the woods, but I guess my magic had a bit of a effect: after we were both fully clothed I checked on a news report in the area that said that a undead Fiend and a demonic dragon spent three days straight trying to kill each other._ "

* * *

Blondie, having just read through the contents of what she had quickly realized was the first in a series of Morgan's journals that she had kept over the years, was left with her jaw hanging in the air with shock.

"Got everything you needed for your book?" Raven asked looking through her mirror pad.

"You mean the time that your mom plowed a two hundred year old corpse while he was transformed into a Fiend? What on earth makes you think I can put something like that in a book!?" Blondie asked an incredulous look on her face.

"Just remember you asked for this." Raven stated as she opened a file on her mirror pad, flipped it over, and subsequently dumped out a huge pile of books that went up to her waist. "Have fun."

"Ugh..." Blondie looked over the pile legitimate fear on her features. "How many of these are going give me nightmares?" Blondie asked as she looked over the pile.

"I dunno I don't read them." Raven stated as she resumed looking through her pad.

"Okay okay!" Blondie snapped as she rubbed her temples with her fingers. "I get that your mom turned into a dragon and plowed a metal zombie, but did they conceive... you!?"

"Not that the subject of my conception is any of your business." Raven stated glowering with annoyance at the reporter. "But all that mom would've needed was to extract a viable stem cell from my father's body to make some sperm and impregnate herself. The same spell that brought the dead back to life at the school was reverse engineered from the one that brought back my father." Blondie seemed confused by Raven's explanation so she decided to continue. "Necromancy doesn't just pick you up and puppet you around: it acts as a preservative, keeping your body intact by as much as possible, my Dad has had that magic in his bones either since the day he died or very shortly thereafter."

"In that case why does he look like a skeleton?" Blondie asked looking confused.

"As a rule necromancers tend to sink the bulk of the magic into the bone, they tend to last a lot longer then the muscles. We can also safely assume that two hundred years of constant fighting shore vast swath's of the stuff off of his bone." Raven explained as she rolled her eyes.

"'Assume?' You don't know?" Blondie stated incredulous.

"How exactly would I know? Did you assume that I asked my father a very personal question about a brutal injury he received? Perhaps you thought that it might be a bed time story to rock me to sleep at night. Or did you simply not think that no one, not even my father, would actually know the finer details of the first two hundred years of his existence?" Blondie suspected she hit a sore spot.

"Don't let the door hit you on the way out!"

* * *

 **Review Section** :

rmarcano321: True. Wind, it slices, dices, make julienne fries and gives the power of flight.

Zwei Eis: True. When she gets the time yes, but she doesn't have anyone like that in particular right now, and Apple's gonna be a bit of a slave driver until the country is in proper working order. No you're not getting trolled, I'm working on the next story as we speak. Good to know.

DJ: Well, Raven knew that Robert had a Obscuri, she also knew what that did to her mother, so she figured that they might be the same underneath their glamour. That is what she was talking about. Good to know.

jascmaster: Working on it.

Charlie: Not go away, just, relax. Her reporter skills are most excellent, her tact at not pissing of Draug's on the other hand, not so much.

Wade: I thought it was. True.


	78. Chapter 78

**Author's Note** : Second Last Chapter now. Read, Review, Favorite and Enjoy!

* * *

Chapter 78: The Time Has Come For Some Peace Evil Queen

It had been a few days since the battle between Rothbart and Morgan. To be more accurate Raven had been burning her mother's still conscious corpse for the past few days now, and it was wearing emotionally thin on her by this point in time. Hence Jadis arranged for some friends to come over and visit her. Apple however had plans of her own.

"No." Raven stated bluntly.

"Oh come on!" Apple responded in a whiny tone of voice.

"Apple, you cannot make another 'Ever After High' in the middle of Hel!" Raven snapped her tone of voice implying that she had this conversation before.

"Why not?" Apple asked cocking a eye suspiciously at Raven.

"Because we already have too many schools!" Raven walked over to the railing of the balcony. "Over there we have the military academy run by Sparrow's Grand Father Hawk Hood. The Hellsing Institute."

"Oh I see."

"There's the magic school run by one of my cousins the Prospero Academy."

"Good to know."

"There, there and there are the three universities that call this city home."

"That sounds excessive." "And over there we have Hell Elementary, Jr. and Sr. High for all the normal people."

"Definitely need that." "Over there is the prep school for the nobility."

"Looks nice."

"And that's just in that one direction." Raven finished her little rant in time to see Apple finish writing something down.

"There that should do it!" Apple stated as she finished with her notes. "All of the courses of Ever After high covered between four different schools." Raven's mouth bobbed as she realized that Apple just tricked her into helping her. "You're right! Building a new school, even a temporary one, is just excessive. Luckily our neighbors place such a high emphasis on education and has so many schools to spare."

"Eh... Eh..." Raven, defeated, went over to the nearest table, and promptly sat down slammed her face into it before she screamed as loudly as she could.

"Raven are you okay?" Apple asked as she turned Raven's head over so that she could see her face. "You don't look okay, have you slept any since you got back home?" Apple asked as she examined Raven.

"I've put myself into a deep meditative state as a substitute." Raven explained as she sat up and started rubbing the sides of her temples massaging her sore head. "I can't sleep like this, my body is adjusting to the purificus and the four genies inside of it and the link with my homeland is going to be shaky for a few years yet." Raven stated letting out a exhausted sigh.

"Come on you." Apple stated pulling Raven up and wrapping her arm around Apple's shoulders. "You need to unwind: in a bad way."

* * *

The office was burning down now. Morgan didn't know if that was suppose to be a sign that she was going to die soon. But one thing still remained unscathed, and it annoyed her to no end.

"Why are you still here?" Morgan asked directing her glare towards her self proclaimed psychiatrist.

"Because you're still here." The narrator replied as if the question was obvious.

"So you intend to keep pestering me until I die?" Morgan asked leveling a glare with her verbal sparring partner. "Awfully brave of you all things considered." Morgan stated gesturing to the white flames nipping away at her consciousness.

"I intend to neither stay nor pester. Merely... offer."

"And thus the real reason why you're here is finally revealed." Morgan would have applauded the Narrator's sense of timing but she found herself rather disarmed at the moment. "Out with it, time is rather short it would seem."

"If I told you that you had the chance to go back and undo all of your mistakes that inevitably resulted in your current situation would you take it?" The narrator asked her tone of voice what one might expect from a Devil at a fork in the road. "Since you're aware of the nature of the Narrators, that also means that you're knowledgeable about our natural omniscience. We literally know everything, for example the mechanics behind time travel and body transference spells."

"All the knowledge in the world and unable to use it." Morgan actually pitied the narrator in her own way. "In the worlds. Plural. But you on the other hand have power enough to use both spells." The narrator stated smirking knowingly.

"So you mean to combine our abilities together in order to put the current me into the body of my past self is that it?" Morgan stated as she nodded contently. "Alright you can go now." Morgan stated prompting a reaction of flabbergast from the Narrator.

"Don't you want a chance to change your life?" The narrator asked legitimately taken back by the casualness of Morgan's statement.

"No. I have my family, I have my revenge, and meddling in my past can destroy everything I have fought for." Morgan's statement seemed to cause her to become content as she leaned into the sofa, which it should be noted was on fire. "Now that I know you only want me and not what I've fought for I don't need to talk to you anymore." Morgan stated as she appeared to drift off to sleep.

"...What!?" The narrator tried desperately to get Morgan to stop ignoring her, rushing over to her and shaking her body to make her pay attention again. "For the love of!" The narrator slapped herself in the face in exasperation.

* * *

Apple had brought Raven to the kitchen that Maddie and Ginger were camping out in, apparently they were aiding the castle's staff in the preparation of goods. Currently they were responsible for the black velvet cake and Wonderlandian tea prepared for Raven who had been dragged down to the dining area by Apple.

"...Wow. She looks like she hasn't slept in days." Ginger stated as she stared into Raven's face.

"She hasn't." Apple stated as she sat down next to Raven.

"Here you go: Pumpkin spice Wonderland Tea!" Maddie stated as she pored a cup of the stuff in front of Raven.

"Thanks Maddie." Raven stated as she picked up the cup, not seeing Maddie who was standing behind her who promptly dropped her head on it's side, closed her eyes and mouthed snoring noises as if she was asleep. As if that comical display was a cue, Raven's face slammed into the table and exaggerated snoring noises were sounded.

"This isn't going to hurt her is it?" Apple asked as she shouldered her friend's body weight.

"Oh... it'll be unpleasant at first, but ultimately I suspect she'll be happy she had that cup."

* * *

Why was this room on fire, was the first thing that Raven thought of. Perhaps a subject of more immediately concern was why she and two other people were in this room as it was burning down.

"Mom!" Raven pieced together the events leading up to this. Realizing the flames were her own Raven immediately pushed them all away as she ran over to her mother's side.

"I told you before there was no saving me Raven, and that is even more true now." Morgan stated as she sat up.

"But you're..."

"Even if my body hadn't been on the funeral pyre for the past three days, those annoying little blessed bullets deleted vast portions of my glamour charm, including data that was vital to maintaining my internal organs." Morgan stated gesturing to her arms that had suffered a similar fate. "My two options are die as your mother, or live as a monster."

"Hello third option right over here!" The Narrator piped up waving her arm around.

"You know of a way to save her?" Raven asked immediately turning her attention to the narrator.

"This again." Morgan muttered as she glared darkly at her opponent. "I swear if you brought my daughter here to engage her in some suicidal plot."

"What suicide are you talking about? The flames here are her very own are they not?" The narrator's logic was infallible if nothing else. "Now there is indeed a way of saving your mother's life, but it pains me to say that for you she will be effectively dead for now on."

"Then you have only the barest threads of my interest." Raven stated crossing her arms sourly. "Speak before you lose even them."

"Using the power produced by a dying witches last few but spectacular flickers, it is possible to cast a spell that can exchange one life for another and place her soul into another's body." The narrator explained prompting a eye roll from Raven.

"Is that it? Even if we could find another body to put her into the chances of rejection are extremely high even if it was her very own clone!" Raven snapped growing increasingly irritated with the woman who had conspired with Maddie to kidnap her.

"But not if the individual to whom she is transferring into was her past self." The narrator explained a finger in the air.

"'Her past self?'" Raven repeated looking shocked. "Has something like that even been tried before?"

"Hello!" The narrator raised both of her hands in the air and pointed down at herself. "Omniscent remember?" The Narrator stated pointing down at herself overly dramatically.

"Who are you? Why do you want to help my mother so badly?" Raven asked looking at the Narrator.

"I'm known as Brooke Page. And I actually owe your mother quite a bit see." The newly introduced Brooke explained while she pored herself a drink. "During the little rampage by one of the many monsters you and your family have dealt with, it's particularly nasty brand of magic caused me to switch places with your friend Maddie. During that time your mother helped me out a bit, and I would like to be able to thank her, but she's not letting me."

"My past is her past, to change mine would result in a change in hers, do I look stupid enough to go around meddling with history and risk erasing her from existence when she's finally managed to find some happiness in her life?" Morgan asked as she cocked a serious brow towards Brooke.

"There is no impact on her future!" Brooke stated as if this was what she was getting at all along. "She stays here in her own timeline, you go back into your past and create a new timeline. This version of her exists here, you and another version of her exists in the new timeline that you create!" Brooke was getting increasingly frustrated with Morgan's stubbornness.

"Mom." Raven looked at her mother, a sad, pleading look in her eyes.

"If you really do want to make me happy, then do this." Raven could see her mother's resolve rapidly collapsing, which was a good thing because this place was looking a touch unstable. "Huu." With that Morgan's resolved was renewed, but in a different direction. "Then do it." Brooke clapped and pulled apart her hands producing a magic sword in the process. "Ram that damned blade through my heart before I change my mind!" Morgan snapped standing up and walking into the weapon in question, having it driven through her heart in the process. Raven moved in to support her mother's weight as the flames started to consume her mind with a renewed vigor. "...I'm sorry. You won't be able to see me again."

"I look forward to the day your daughter gets to meet you." Raven stated as tears came down her face.

* * *

In the real world the castle rumbled, the white purifying flames gathered around Morgan in a vortex before shooting straight into the air, punching through the whole of the castle and leaving no damage behind before going straight into the sky. As Raven slept peacefully leaning into Apple's shoulder, tears could be seen coming down her closed eyes.

* * *

Within the halls of Ever After high, a figure, a young witch, could be seen in the library, carrying in her arms a large book that had been wrapped in cloth. She went to the deepest corner of the library and brought out a second tome and unwrapped the first, revealing two identical tomes composed of draconic leather and with a large jewel in the center.

"As long as I live." A quill appeared when the witch opened the book. "As long as I still have breath in my body." The witch signed her name in the book that was originally wrapped in cloth, Morgan Konigan. "For my destiny is my own, and no one else's." A spectacular show of magic was made when the darkness inside of Morgan's body spilled out of her and entered the first book, the Story Book of Legends, which was destroyed by the black magic, the combination of gold from the books spilled contents and black from Morgan's own magic entered the young witches body and flooded through her into the new book. "Not my father." Morgan stated as she finished signing her name in the other book, under the section which said 'Grim.' "Not my home land." On the remains of the first book, a page could be seen with Morgan's name on it 'Evil Queen.' "Me!"

* * *

Cupid had called a meeting between herself, Briar and Faybelle inside of one of the dens of the Konigan castle. The subject of the meeting, the wedding of Raven and Apple.

"Rejected." Faybelle stated bored, her chin leaning against her fist as she stared at Cupid's chalkboard. "Raven can't leave Riordan for at least five years while the four genies settle down in her body, and then she can't leave for a prolong period of time as the genies will have tied her to the land. If those two live together they have to do it in Riordan."

"Rejected..." Briars face smacked into the table she was sitting at having just fallen asleep again, one bump on the table by Faybelle and Briar sprung back to life. "...Apple's a war hero now, she's like a propaganda battering ram and her Mom's using it to wipe out corruption in the ranks."

Ever After had long since fallen into a cesspool of rampant corruption, the dwarfs who polluted the lands into a toxic unusable state, the people who saw Riordan's rich resources as the only solution, the nobles who saw this as a opportunity to conquer their mis-perceived enemy's territory, the traditionalists who held them back from fixing the real source of the problem. These individuals had to be destroyed metaphorically and literally for Ever After to move forward. Which meant that Apple was going to be too busy to get happily wed to Raven for the next several years.

"So in six years, some where in Riordan." Cupid concluded having settled on their timeline and location. "Now than: ceremony, ritual. Ideas people?"

"Well its happening in Riordan: what's their ceremony look like?" Briar asked on verge of dozing off again.

"They strip naked, paint animal dung on their faces, tie their hands together and turn themselves into animals and spend the next three days plowing each other ass over ears." Faybelle stated in a blunt tone, mildly amused to see the look of sheer horror on Briar's face.

"Right... Ever After marriage ceremony it is." Cupid stated as she selected the card for Ever After's ceremony.

"Again no. That ceremony was conceived and protected by people who made it their life's mission to wipe out Raven's wedding guests, including myself." Faybelle stated closing her eyes and making a unpleasant face.

"It can't be that bad..."

"When the lands that would become Ever After was first made aware of Wonderland people like Maddie, the human looking ones that is, were declared insane and incompetent and locked inside of Asylums where they tried to beat the crazy out of them. The ones like Kitty on the other hand found themselves hacked to pieces, usually fatally. Several so called priests made sport out of rounding up peasants and using them as cannon fodder to kill Ramona's and Cerises ancestors, one famously carried out his duties, including marriage rituals, in the skin of one of the earlier 'Big Bad Wolfs.' And if memory serves me it was a rather popular trend among certain noble members of the church to grind up fairy bones and snuff them like certain hallucinogens during their wedding nights. I could go on but I would start sounding bias." Faybelle stated shrugging her shoulders and smirking when she saw Cupid put away the card for Ever After's ceremony.

"Alright so does the Riordan Ceremony even allow guests? From what Faybelle said it sounds like... really strange porn and it's not something I would like my friends to see." Briar stated really trying not to fall asleep less Faybelle's excessive nightmare fuel drive her insane.

"Let's table Riordan and Ever After Ceremonies then." Cupid brought up a new chalk board. "What needs to happen for both countries to recognize Apple and Raven as a couple?"

"Ever After demands fourteen witnesses, not including a legally recognized monk, priest or Cleric, the consent of any still living parents on either side and a appointed keeper for the legal bands until the time and date of the ceremony." Briar explained as she started nodding off.

"Riordan has paper work that needs to be filed, of the kind with magically binding ceremony." Faybelle smirked to Briar's confusion. "They take 'til death do us part' a little more seriously."

"Even with Raven's Dad Corvo? Isn't he already kinda...?"

"He's still walking around isn't he?" Faybelle replied amused. "There have been people running around championing undead rights for a few decades now, the fact that all the non-sapient undead have been wiped out and the revelation of Raven's parentage should go a long way."

"Back on topic, is there anything else we need?" Cupid asked cocking a brow. "With so many high profile individuals present we'll need a lot of protection for our girls to feel safe."

"So body guards then. We'll have Raven's dad Corvo, you Faybelle, Ramona and her sister, Darling and her brothers, Sparrow, Maddie and Kitty, push comes to shove I can slit my wrists and just knock everyone out."

"Not to mention we'll have a giant mass of magical power and a young lady with the power to control all manner of unpleasant creature under her command." The girls turned their attention to the doorway where Apple was standing with a big smirk on her face, a eye that was twitching like a spring lock mechanism on the verge of self destructing. "Funny, I don't remember asking any of you to plan our wedding for us."

* * *

 **Review Section** :

rmarcano321: It also means 'Crow' so it seemed appropriate to have him be the name of Raven's father. Air is the element that gives life, vibrating rotating air is what gives a chain saw it's bite and grants the power of flight. There's John Carpenter, he was my original idea, I've got a few more for the new fic too. I use to draw scenery, I recall a rather impressive scene of a man on a little dingy in the middle of a typhoon, was quite proud of it at the time.

Zwei Eis: True. Also True. Definitely true.

DJ: Not including this one, only one chapter left to post till the stories over, which I intend to devote to a happy ending. The diary like nature of the chapter was misleading, making it look like Morgan had spent less time seriously thinking about a relationship with Corvo then she did.

Charlie: That she shouldn't. Glad I could help.

Wade: Thank you for saying so. Tell me about it.


	79. Chapter 79

**Author's Note** : Alright. Last chapter of the story, Hope you all enjoyed the story! Cause I'm not publishing another one for a couple of weeks. And in case any of you are wondering, the Next story has the working title of Queen of the Monsters. Read, Review, Favorite and Enjoy!

* * *

Chapter 79: For Whom the Bells Toll

A ball was to be held in honor of Raven and Apple within Riordan's capital, Apple was being stalled somewhat in her decorating efforts by the natives of Riordan, which it should be noted consisted largely of individuals whose parties often involved substances of questionable origins and significantly fewer decorations. Formality was not a strong suit of the people of these lands, that much Apple had come to understand.

"So have you talked to her about it?" Briar asked as she sat behind Apple backwards on a chair.

"About you guys planning our wedding behind our back?" Apple asked as she looked down on Briar. "No it's not something we've brought up: largely on account of the fact that we're both quite freaked out about over everything that's happened to us."

"You turned Raven's curse thingy into a ball of purifying flame the moment you gave her mouth to mouth what more proof do you need?" Briar asked a disbelieving look on her features.

"Huu." Apple rolled her eyes as she got round to telling Briar what Faybelle told her. "True love isn't limited between lovers, there's the love of a parent for their child, and the love of a sibling, there's also love between very good friends, the kind that have been through hell and back together."

"You mean, like what you two were?" Briar stated cluing in.

"Thank you, I wasn't painfully aware of that enough already." Apple replied sarcastically. "Officially: we're dating now. But we'll be going to different schools when the summer gets out. Luckily everything is so close together in this place that we'll still be in walking distance of each other."

"Still what that miserable butt pain Faybelle said bothers you doesn't it?" Briar commented tapping fingers impatiently.

"Now you understand my dilemma."

"Hey Apple, what you said about your parents tale, do you remember it?" Briar asked something having occurred to her.

"What about it?" Apple asked the last thing she needed right now was a discussion about unsuccessful relationships.

"Even if your Dad doesn't 'True Love' your Mom they're still happy together right?" Apple cocked a suspicious brow as Briar rounded on her point. "If true love is as rare as what Faybelle makes it out to be then that means that there's a ton of happy couples out there who make it work anyway in spite of not having it doesn't it? But as about seven armies have been made aware of already: you two most certainly have it!" Briar stated as she reassuringly grabbed Apple by her shoulders, before that is she started snoring standing up.

"I suppose that I should take over from here." Faybelle commented prompting Apple to look around Briar to see the fairy standing behind her.

"Why did you have to put that thought into my head? I'm going to be haunted by that forever now!" Apple commented as she sat Briar down.

"Because Raven needed you to hear it." Faybelle's voice was filled with a quiet steel. "You are a dragon with a mail owl: you see something that catches your eye and you chase after it, and it ends up the same old story, the post office needs to get a new owl and the dragon looses their chew toy. No one wins from you flying off the handle."

"So... What should I do?" Apple asked her head tilted to the side.

"Relationships, any relationship, is meant to be built slowly over a period of time. You already have a relationship with Raven, now you want a new one." Faybelle said shrugging her shoulders. "Work on it, work hard on it." Faybelle pulled Apple close and held her lips to her ear. "Cause if you hurt her in any way, I will kill you in the most horrific way that I can imagine. Understood?"

"I think you used that one on me before." Apple pulled away from Faybelle, a confident arrogant look on her face. "Cause no one's hurting Raven again as long as I have something to say about it!"

* * *

"So if I understand this correctly." Weiss was rubbing at the temples of her head as she sat across from Jadis. "You think Robert wanted to turn Morgan... into him?"

"That's what his research notes seems to have concluded." Jadis stated as she left said notes on her table. "He apparently decided that having someone around to maintain the system of curses that he created was more important than a heir to the throne. At least immediately." Jadis turned around to face the window. "Of the spell casters that he could groom and shape for the future, my daughter seemed to be the single greatest candidate he could think of to fill his position."

"I thought that he could like, live forever or something?" Weiss asked as she tilted her head in confusion. "I mean, wasn't he immortal or something from the Obscuri he collected or something?"

"He got to live slightly longer than most mages yes. But immortal isn't the right word." Jadis turned around in her chair as she thought about the situation further. "Immortality gained through a curse is rarely a blessing. We tend to view the tale of Cartaphilius as a precautionary story."

"'Cartaphilius?'" Weiss quoted having never heard of such a name.

"According to legend, Cartaphilius was once a man who stoned the son of a god, for his actions he received the 'gift' of immortality and thus cannot die, even as his body continuously rots away. Others think he was simply some fool magician who tried to live for ever and paid a steep price for it." Jadis gave a disinterested shrug of her shoulders. "I'm thinking of having Raven take a crack at him now that she's done with her mother."

"Wait this man is a real person!?" Weiss asked in shock with this ludicrous thing she just heard.

"We keep him in a box downstairs and change out a bag full of fantasy potion if you'd like a idea of what we saved Morgan from."

"I don't thank you very much." Weiss stated as her face twisted in horror. "But Robert wanted Morgan to take his place I understand. But how did he figure that she would do it?"

"He raised up a number of sacrificial pawns within your country, that Beauty woman who use to pick on my daughter, the satellite that he used to nearly curse me to death, various nobles who hunted witches that my daughter disposed of in rare moments of subtlety, perhaps most importantly you. He quite likely expected her focus that limitless wrath of hers upon your head and in the process inspire a new generation of witch hunts. To be fair had she not met Corvo, she likely would have." Jadis looked up and smiled as if she was remembering something fondly. "Not what I expected my daughter to bring home. I nearly cursed the poor thing back to hell he scared me so badly the first time I met him. I don't know if it was a side effect of the thing growing inside of her at the time but their relationship was quite loving from what I can tell. I was even more surprised to learn that they had managed to conceive a child around then as well, still not sure why she did it. Perhaps it was just her giving having a normal life one last chance before she dragged the realm into her war."

"Wasn't that around the time that you stopped dating?" Weiss asked as she cocked a suspicious brow, and Jadis's smirk served as confirmation. "So you planned for Raven to take over from the beginning did you?"

"There are a number of ways to deal with a curse, riddlish, true love, as a last resort I intended to collect on favors from the Beast, Thorn, Winter and Yaga family's." Jadis explained before letting out a sigh. "All that time I spent buttering up that man and Raven does something like getting blasted by a Jabberwocky. Now I find out she met her true love and managed to turn that cursed power into her own and uses it to break the curse keeping me crippled. To top it off instead of finding out who the lucky fellow is from her, I find out by reading the Lockes girl news blog."

"Who is the lucky guy anyway?" For a short period of time, Jadis just stared at Weiss with defeated look of disbelief. "What!? What is it, why are you staring at me like that!?" Wordlessly, Jadis picked up her mirror pad with the front page of Blondie's latest article front and center, depicting a picture of Raven and Apple and the headline 'Ever After's new power couple!' Which it should be noted resulted in a horrified look in Weiss's face.

* * *

Both Raven, who looked as exhausted as ever, and Apple, who looked slightly annoyed, had been called in to a meeting with Weiss in a guest room in the Riordan Family's castle.

"Would you mind explaining, how it seems that the two of you were dating all this time and never told me, your own mother!?" Weiss asked in a demanding tone of voice.

"Well... I seem to recall failing to realize the whole thing myself on account of already being _engage_ to a _male_ fiance because _someone_ told me it was for the _Good of the Kingdom!_ " Apple snapped irritated beyond what anyone should have the right to be, and yet. "Tell me has he come in with any more videos of himself plowing the corpse of our distant ancestor!?"

"Blondie told you about that did she?" Raven asked while warding off a yawn.

"Once she stopped gagging." Apple commented lightly in response.

"Speaking of which can we discuss why you didn't tell any that you developed a crush on my daughter?" Weiss asked clearly trying to change the subject.

"Normally I'd make a snarky joke but I haven't gotten a wink of sleep for the past three days and I need to correct that." Raven explained as her clothing magically changed into PJ's and starred bluntly at Weiss. "My face is going to be in that pillow if any one needs it, it won't be available until Sun Down." Saying that, Raven collapsed into that bed without pomp or ceremony.

"I think I will join my _Girl Friend_ In her slumber." Saying that Apple promptly got behind her mother and unceremoniously shoved her through the door. "You on the other hand can go and beg Baba to help you undo three hundred years worth of damage to our homeland!" Saying that, Apple slammed the door shut and was followed by the sound of several locks closing.

"Huu. She hates me." Weiss stated as her head leaned against the door.

"You won't hear me arguing." Weiss turned around to witness a certain man made out of bone and metal.

"Playing chastity guard for your daughter monster?" Weiss asked cocking a suspicious brow.

"Do you know how many people tried to kill her in this castle? The dragon buried most of them out in the courtyard like dog burying bones in the backyard to dig up later." As Corvo said that Nevermore entered the hallway through a window with a femur in her chompers and entered Raven's and Apple's room through a vent that was too small for anyone without the ability to shrink down to the size of a cat.

"Lemme guess, this entire castle is riddled with body guards for the young princess?"

"I married her and even I don't know how many ways to screw someone over Morgan put into this castle." Corvo stated shrugging his shoulders.

"Please don't tell me Apple actually plans to stay here while she's finishing her education?"

* * *

"Hello people! Maddie Hatter here!" Maddie waved in front of the masses looking into the world from the outside. "Now you see, normally the author doesn't like to do time skips, they're a lazy way of avoiding what they think the public will think is a boring section of a story. FYI the story finished a minuet ago, but he knows none of you are gonna be satisfied if you don't see the next scene, so stay tuned for another minuet."

* * *

It had been a few years since Morgan had died, Raven had finished putting on her pinstripe suit that Farrah had fitted for her and checked her cuffs again. Even with a suit on the newly developed curves in Raven's figure were obvious and had developed into a hourglass figure. On the contrary the stripes in Raven's suit and the way that it was tailored seemed to emphasize her curves instead.

"Nervous?" Corvo asked as he leaned against the frame of the door way.

"Just because you and Mom did this without any pomp or circumstance doesn't mean that it isn't a big deal for the rest of us." Raven stated in a scornful tone of voice.

"Sure sure, come on let's get you married."

Corvo escorted his daughter into a hall, various friends from school had been gathered together, Apple's childhood friends, Briar, Blondie, Cupid, Ashlynn, Lizzie, Rosabella and Duchess, had been put into pink frilly dresses and served as brides maids. But pinker and more frilly than any of them was the red haired child holding up a bouquet while looking around. By the way, her name was Robin, and she was five years old, also she's Raven and Apple's daughter. Raven's childhood friends, Maddie, Ramona, Cerise, Faybelle, Sparrow Plus Dexter and Hunter were dressed in suits and were serving as Groomsmen. Standing in front of the podium next to the Queen of Ever After was the Bride, Apple dressed in a white wedding dress, with the Man of Honor Daring. Like Raven Apple had managed to mature rather nicely over the years, her dress was tailored to her figure and it showed in the hour glass like figure, but the dragon shaped cane that served as a artifact of a broken ankle was still there too. But while Apple looked like the angel sent from above like she was her mother looked down right constipated about something.

"Where is that dragon of yours!?" Weiss snapped clearly angered with the 'Groom.' "Told the two of you making a dragon ring bearer was a horrible idea, but did you listen? No!"

"Calm down! I don't exactly see Darling around either." Raven stated a little bit amused.

"And that makes me feel better because?"

Raven was escorted to the front of the podium with Apple. Mira took the stand in full monk garb as a priest.

"Greetings ladies and gentlemen." Mira started off in a warm but monotonous tone of voice. "We are gathered here today..." Then the punch at the concession table started to shake. "...To happily wed..." Another shake, louder, and people were starting to notice.

"One day... One. Lousy. Day. To Get. Married." Raven stated an annoyed tic in her eye.

"Huu. Well I suppose that it's always the dying beasts that fight the hardest don't they?" Apple looked suspiciously like she planned this.

"You knew this was going to happen didn't you?" Raven asked looking slightly annoyed.

"Well, we thought we wiped them all out, but if we didn't they would definitely pick now to act." Apple stated looking strangely happy.

"Is that why the wall over there is decorated with sharp pointy things?" Raven stared flatly at her wife.

"That's why that wall is decorated with sharp pointy things." Darling kicked the door open, her suit singed and sword bloodied and resting on her shoulder.

"Mira step on it! Nevermore Rings!" A huge clawed hand punched through the roof and lowered down and opened up, on the tips of too clawed fingers were a pair of rings, one gold with rubies as red as a apple, the other a silver with a familiar amethyst lodged in the center. Apple took the Ruby and Raven the Amethyst. "Grooms men! Sharp things! Outside now!" Dexter grabbed his brother and brought him over to the wall and together the various suited people acquired appropriate weapons, with the exception of Ramona who simply turned into her giant wolfy form.

"Hraban 'Raven' Konigan do you..."

"Yes!" Raven stated happily putting the silver ring on her wife's finger.

"...Apple 'Apfel' White do you except..."

"Yes!" Apple stated equally happy and just as eager to cut Mira off by putting Raven's ring on her finger.

"Huu." Between their excitement and the battle that had started outside she had no room to complain. "I now declare you Mrs. and Mrs. 'Weiss-Konigan' you may now kiss the bride."

The giant scaly hand of Nevermore grabbed the two as they embraced each other in a passionate kiss. Darling scooped up the child and nestled her between them. Nevermore, by now a giant dragon as great as Brogan during the battle of the seven armies and wearing a huge scarf that clearly had the words printed on it 'just married' and laced with cans gave the enemy who attempted to invade the monastery one last fire breath before she took off.

"And thus they lived Happily Ever After!" Maddie stated clenching both hands together and joyously wrenching them off to the side of her head. "Bye bye for now! See all of you in a Couple of weeks!"

* * *

 **Review Section** :

rmarcano321: I'm Canadian, Thanksgiving was over a month ago. That she is. A little here or there, if you spot any references then probably but I can't remember anything specific.

Zwei Eis: Thank you for saying so.

DJ: True. I was planning on it, and she will be able to this time. Morgan knows who her enemies are in this version of events, and yes nipping those in the bun will net her some years of peace, but that doesn't mean that the universe will feel content to leave her alone.

Jascmaster: Yes. Hope I was satisfactory.

Charlie: For many years she will, but then interesting plot will happen. Most definitely.

Wade: Do you know about that episode of the Simpson's where Homer steps on a bug in the past and he comes back home to his family with bugs for heads?


End file.
